{"id":317052,"date":"2026-04-11T18:19:42","date_gmt":"2026-04-11T12:49:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/?p=317052"},"modified":"2026-04-11T18:19:43","modified_gmt":"2026-04-11T12:49:43","slug":"watch-anthony-smith-return-from-retirement-to-batter-ex-ufc-contender-in-gamebred-bareknuckle-mma","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/2026\/04\/11\/watch-anthony-smith-return-from-retirement-to-batter-ex-ufc-contender-in-gamebred-bareknuckle-mma\/","title":{"rendered":"Watch Anthony Smith return from retirement to batter ex-UFC contender in Gamebred Bareknuckle MMA"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Follow us on Google Discover<\/span> <\/a> <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

Former UFC title challenger Anthony Smith returned to the win column in his first fight since leaving the leading MMA promotion.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Smith initially retired in 2025 after a dismal run contained in the UFC Octagon, during which he lost six of eight fights across a three-year period.<\/p>\n

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\u2018Lionheart\u2019, who was beaten by Jon Jones in his one title shot within the organization, hung up the gloves after a brutal knockout defeat to Zhang Mingyang. Nevertheless, it didn’t take long for him to commit to a fighting return.<\/p>\n

That took place on Friday night, and Smith didn’t appear to be the identical fighter who called it quits in a pool of his own blood last April.<\/p>\n

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Who’s your favorite non-UFC fighter and why?<\/h3>\n

Tell us within the comments which fighter you will at all times tune in for out of doors of the Octagon.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

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Who’s your favorite non-UFC fighter? Credit: Chris Unger\/Zuffa LLC<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/section>\n

Anthony Smith dominates Chase Sherman in Jorge Masvidal\u2019s bareknuckle MMA promotion<\/h2>\n

Many were concerned when Anthony Smith\u2019s comeback from retirement was confirmed to be within the bareknuckle MMA realm. <\/p>\n

He has suffered a variety of vicious TKO losses in recent times, including beatdowns by the hands of Glover Teixeira and Khalil Rountree Jr.<\/p>\n

But that type of setback was never on the cards when Smith battled Chase Sherman in a heavyweight contest on April 10.<\/p>\n

Jorge Masvidal\u2019s Gamebred Bareknuckle MMA promotion is staging a heavyweight tournament, and Smith faced Sherman within the round of 16.<\/p>\n

The previous light heavyweight dominated the short clash, starting out by battering his rival on the feet. After being left bloody, Sherman was eventually sent down and quickly submitted via rear-naked choke after just below three and a half minutes.<\/p>\n

\u2018The Vanilla Gorilla\u2019 tapped almost immediately when \u2018Lionheart\u2019 locked in a move that he used to beat Alexander Gustafsson, Volkan Oezdemir, and Ryan Spann within the UFC.<\/p>\n

Friday\u2019s event in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, also included a tournament win for Thiago Santos. Like Smith, \u2018Marreta\u2019 is a former Jones foe who was trying to bounce back from a difficult period in combat sports.<\/p>\n

Also advancing to the quarterfinal stage was Said Sowma, while Elias Santos, Jhonasky Sojo, and Ray Cooper III got through the opening round of the lightweight tournament.<\/p>\n

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Follow us on Google Discover Former UFC title challenger Anthony Smith returned to the win column in his first fight since leaving the leading MMA promotion. Smith initially retired in 2025 after a dismal run contained in the UFC Octagon, during which he lost six of eight fights across a three-year period. \u2018Lionheart\u2019, who was […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":317053,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[338],"tags":[1414,13585,20386,8911,10065,16523,7232,2411,1161,2156,1393],"class_list":["post-317052","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports","tag-anthony","tag-bareknuckle","tag-batter","tag-contender","tag-exufc","tag-gamebred","tag-mma","tag-retirement","tag-return","tag-smith","tag-watch"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/317052","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=317052"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/317052\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":317055,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/317052\/revisions\/317055"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/317053"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=317052"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=317052"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=317052"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}