Former UFC light heavyweight title challenger Anthony Smith set the MMA community on fire during an appearance on Michael Bisping’s ‘Belive You Me’ podcast.
During their conversation, Smith discussed an incident where a drunk Donald Cerrone and professional poker player Dan Blizerian forced Smith’s wife and mother out of their front row seats before Smith’s light heavyweight title fight with Jon Jones at UFC 235.
“Dan Bilzerian and Donald Cerrone, removed my mom and my wife from their seats, while I’m getting ready to fight Jon Jones,” Anthony Smith said while speaking with Michael Bisping. “I was f*cking furious. If I had seen Dan Bilzerian – cause I had found out about it right after I got to the back, and if I had seen him then, I would have f*cking torn his head off, I was so mad.”
After Smith’s story blew up the internet, he followed up with Jesse Merl on his ‘Jesse ON FIRE’ podcast to provide some additional details on the incident and why he waited so long to discuss it.
Merl first asked if Anthony Smith had any idea that this story would cause such an uproar within the MMA community.
“No, I had no idea,” said Smith. “I’m just on the podcast with this thing. We just rap about whatever pops in our head and I don’t know. He brought up Dan Blizerian and I just told the Dan Blizerian story that I had.”
When asked if he had seen Blizerian since the incident, Smith stated that he had not, but did confirm he has run into Cerrone multiple times though never addressed the incident with him directly.
“I’ve ran into Cowboy a handful of times since and never said anything, but I’ve always given Cowboy a pass because I know that deep down, Cowboy’s a good dude. Sometimes you know, you drink too much or whatever and you end up in a weird circle with rich guys and sh*t happens sometimes. But I think Cowboy’s character has shown through positively more times than it has negatively.
“I’ve always given him kind of a pass on that and just been like, he was kind of f*cked up and you know, by and large Cowboy’s a good dude and I think that if I ever brought it up, I think that he would have apologized so I’ve always kind of given him a pass.”
Anthony Smith Believes It Was an Isolated Incident With Cerrone, but Is Not Willing to Give Blizerian the Same Benefit of the Doubt
When asked about his knowledge of Dan Blizerian, Smith said that he only knew about Blizerian from what he had seen social media and heard from others.
“I don’t even know Dan. I guess I just know of what I’ve seen on social media and then what I’ve heard about him from people that do know him. Other than this one thing, he’s never done anything to me. It’s just a, you know, this is a one-off and I’ve always just assumed that he was just a [hell of a] douchebag.
“Just because that was my mom, it’s a story, you know what I mean? And because of the situation that was going on when it happened, it’s a deal, but how many times has he done that to just regular folks, you know what I mean? That’s the thing people are probably latching on to.
“I’m not out here trying to attack Dan and definitely not Cowboy. If I had an issue with Cowboy, there’s been plenty of situations for me to deal with that issue. Whether that be bring it up to him or flip out or whatever. Maybe I’m a weirdo because I haven’t. Initially I was pretty pissed as well, but I think the more I thought about it like, when you stick me in a room with a bunch of millionaires or whatever, you get blacked out drunk, I can’t guarantee that I wouldn’t do something stupid.”
While Smith is willing to give Cerrone the benefit of the doubt, he was unwilling to do the same for Blizerian given his reputation. According to Smith, the two have not crossed paths since the incident but says he would have a conversation with Blizerian regarding the situation should they bump into one another.
“I think that was probably just an isolated situation [for Cowboy] and I don’t necessarily believe that it’s that isolated of a situation when it comes to Dan Blizerian. I could have gotten ahold of Dan if I wanted to. I always just figured I’d see him when I seen him and we would have a conversation about it.”
When asked what kind of conversation, Smith said, “I think that depends on him. I think he decides where that conversation goes.”