MMA Fighting<\/a>). \u201cThe first one failed. I went into my six-week checkup after my first surgery and the plate was broken and the bone had shifted back again… So they went back in, they took the plate off, they drilled one hole in my femur, one in my shin, and they took out the spongy bone material they used for bone grafts in my hand and then they put another plate on the side of it instead of on top because there are so many large holes. So they put it on the side and then filled the holes with the spongy bone from my leg. So that was a rough one. Then I couldn\u2019t close my hand for probably two months. My left hand.\u201d<\/p>\n\u201cI almost cut my finger off,\u201d Smith continued. \u201cWe were going to amputate my pointer finger because all the scar tissue was grabbing onto the ligament and not allowing it to close and slide back and forth. So the idea was that if we amputated the finger and then screwed those ligaments to the bone after it healed, that I could still use the other three fingers and my thumb to grapple but there would still technically be a knuckle there so I could punch.\u201d<\/p>\n
Luckily, Smith found another option, meaning that he didn’t have to lob off his finger.<\/p>\n
\u201cSome crazy old lady did this different type of therapy where they attached electricity to my wrist and my forearm and moved it around and was able to catch the muscle that closes the hand and really, she just crushed through the scar tissue,\u201d Smith said. \u201cSo once she put electricity to it, it forced my hand closed – because the bone was still healing and by forcefully closing it, you\u2019re putting a lot of tension on that break. I couldn\u2019t close it myself because I didn\u2019t have the strength, and as I\u2019m not moving it, the scar tissue just continues to build and build and build so by attaching electricity to it, it\u2019s essentially me closing my own hand without someone else doing it with all that tension on the break. So once we tore through all that scar tissue the first time, we just did that every single day until I was able to get the movement back in it and now it\u2019s good…<\/p>\n
\u201cI was ready to go but my wife and the UFC wanted to explore other options first. So that crazy lady saved my finger for sure. I was ready just to say screw it all, I\u2019m sick of this rehab stuff and scraping the scar tissue out of it and continually opening my hand up to get the scar tissue out. I was just ready to get back to fighting and cutting my finger off, at that time, was the fastest way.\u201d<\/p>\n
What do you think of this story from Anthony Smith? Who do you want to see him fight next?<\/p>\n
This article first appeared on\u00a0<\/i>BJPENN.com<\/i><\/span><\/a>\u00a0on 2\/4\/2020.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Anthony Smith has not fought since he defeated Alexander Gustafsson last June, having been sidelined by an unfortunate hand injury. The former light heavyweight title challenger has had multiple surgeries in an effort to cure this injury, and as he revealed in an interview with ESPN on Monday, nearly amputated his finger when surgery didn’t […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":54430,"featured_media":304241,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false},"categories":[39522,39610],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\n
Anthony Smith nearly amputated his finger to keep fighting | BJPenn.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Anthony Smith has not fought since he defeated Alexander Gustafsson last June, having been sidelined by an unfortunate hand injury.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ufc\/anthony-smith-nearly-amputated-his-finger-to-keep-fighting\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Anthony Smith nearly amputated his finger to keep fighting | BJPenn.com\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Anthony Smith has not fought since he defeated Alexander Gustafsson last June, having been sidelined by an unfortunate hand injury.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ufc\/anthony-smith-nearly-amputated-his-finger-to-keep-fighting\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"| BJPenn.com\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/bjpenn\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-02-04T16:46:56+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/wp-content\/uploads\/Anthony-Smith-5.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"696\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"399\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Tom Taylor\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@bjpenndotcom\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@bjpenndotcom\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Tom Taylor\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ufc\/anthony-smith-nearly-amputated-his-finger-to-keep-fighting\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ufc\/anthony-smith-nearly-amputated-his-finger-to-keep-fighting\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Tom Taylor\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#\/schema\/person\/e1a3f1e5a045aeaf5b59aa1549a06a87\"},\"headline\":\"Anthony Smith nearly amputated his finger to keep fighting\",\"datePublished\":\"2020-02-04T16:46:56+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2020-02-04T16:46:56+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ufc\/anthony-smith-nearly-amputated-his-finger-to-keep-fighting\/\"},\"wordCount\":583,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#organization\"},\"articleSection\":[\"Anthony Smith\",\"UFC\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ufc\/anthony-smith-nearly-amputated-his-finger-to-keep-fighting\/#respond\"]}],\"copyrightYear\":\"2020\",\"copyrightHolder\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#organization\"}},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ufc\/anthony-smith-nearly-amputated-his-finger-to-keep-fighting\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ufc\/anthony-smith-nearly-amputated-his-finger-to-keep-fighting\/\",\"name\":\"Anthony Smith nearly amputated his finger to keep fighting | BJPenn.com\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2020-02-04T16:46:56+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2020-02-04T16:46:56+00:00\",\"description\":\"Anthony Smith has not fought since he defeated Alexander Gustafsson last June, having been sidelined by an unfortunate hand injury.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ufc\/anthony-smith-nearly-amputated-his-finger-to-keep-fighting\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ufc\/anthony-smith-nearly-amputated-his-finger-to-keep-fighting\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ufc\/anthony-smith-nearly-amputated-his-finger-to-keep-fighting\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"MMA News\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":3,\"name\":\"UFC\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ufc\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":4,\"name\":\"Anthony Smith nearly amputated his finger to keep fighting\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/\",\"name\":\"| BJPenn.com\",\"description\":\"MMA & UFC News, Results & Fight Videos\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#organization\",\"name\":\"| BJPenn.com\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"http:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/bj_penn_logo_amp.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"http:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/bj_penn_logo_amp.png\",\"width\":600,\"height\":148,\"caption\":\"| BJPenn.com\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/instagram.com\/bjpenn\",\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/bjpenn\",\"https:\/\/www.pinterest.com\/bjpenndotcom\/\",\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/user\/0fficialbjpenn\",\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/bjpenn\",\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/bjpenndotcom\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#\/schema\/person\/e1a3f1e5a045aeaf5b59aa1549a06a87\",\"name\":\"Tom Taylor\",\"description\":\"Tom Taylor is a globetrotting writer currently based in Ottawa, Canada. He is a staff writer for BJPenn.com, and also covers mixed martial arts for Fightland and Vice Sports. Follow him on Twitter @TomTayMMA.\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/author\/tom-taylor\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Anthony Smith nearly amputated his finger to keep fighting | BJPenn.com","description":"Anthony Smith has not fought since he defeated Alexander Gustafsson last June, having been sidelined by an unfortunate hand injury.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ufc\/anthony-smith-nearly-amputated-his-finger-to-keep-fighting\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Anthony Smith nearly amputated his finger to keep fighting | BJPenn.com","og_description":"Anthony Smith has not fought since he defeated Alexander Gustafsson last June, having been sidelined by an unfortunate hand injury.","og_url":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ufc\/anthony-smith-nearly-amputated-his-finger-to-keep-fighting\/","og_site_name":"| BJPenn.com","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/bjpenn","article_published_time":"2020-02-04T16:46:56+00:00","og_image":[{"width":696,"height":399,"url":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/wp-content\/uploads\/Anthony-Smith-5.png","type":"image\/png"}],"author":"Tom Taylor","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@bjpenndotcom","twitter_site":"@bjpenndotcom","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Tom Taylor","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ufc\/anthony-smith-nearly-amputated-his-finger-to-keep-fighting\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ufc\/anthony-smith-nearly-amputated-his-finger-to-keep-fighting\/"},"author":{"name":"Tom Taylor","@id":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#\/schema\/person\/e1a3f1e5a045aeaf5b59aa1549a06a87"},"headline":"Anthony Smith nearly amputated his finger to keep fighting","datePublished":"2020-02-04T16:46:56+00:00","dateModified":"2020-02-04T16:46:56+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ufc\/anthony-smith-nearly-amputated-his-finger-to-keep-fighting\/"},"wordCount":583,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#organization"},"articleSection":["Anthony Smith","UFC"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ufc\/anthony-smith-nearly-amputated-his-finger-to-keep-fighting\/#respond"]}],"copyrightYear":"2020","copyrightHolder":{"@id":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#organization"}},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ufc\/anthony-smith-nearly-amputated-his-finger-to-keep-fighting\/","url":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ufc\/anthony-smith-nearly-amputated-his-finger-to-keep-fighting\/","name":"Anthony Smith nearly amputated his finger to keep fighting | BJPenn.com","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#website"},"datePublished":"2020-02-04T16:46:56+00:00","dateModified":"2020-02-04T16:46:56+00:00","description":"Anthony Smith has not fought since he defeated Alexander Gustafsson last June, having been sidelined by an unfortunate hand injury.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ufc\/anthony-smith-nearly-amputated-his-finger-to-keep-fighting\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ufc\/anthony-smith-nearly-amputated-his-finger-to-keep-fighting\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ufc\/anthony-smith-nearly-amputated-his-finger-to-keep-fighting\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"MMA News","item":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"UFC","item":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ufc\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":4,"name":"Anthony Smith nearly amputated his finger to keep fighting"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#website","url":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/","name":"| BJPenn.com","description":"MMA & UFC News, Results & Fight Videos","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#organization","name":"| BJPenn.com","url":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"http:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/bj_penn_logo_amp.png","contentUrl":"http:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/bj_penn_logo_amp.png","width":600,"height":148,"caption":"| BJPenn.com"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/instagram.com\/bjpenn","https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/bjpenn","https:\/\/www.pinterest.com\/bjpenndotcom\/","https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/user\/0fficialbjpenn","https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/bjpenn","https:\/\/twitter.com\/bjpenndotcom"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#\/schema\/person\/e1a3f1e5a045aeaf5b59aa1549a06a87","name":"Tom Taylor","description":"Tom Taylor is a globetrotting writer currently based in Ottawa, Canada. He is a staff writer for BJPenn.com, and also covers mixed martial arts for Fightland and Vice Sports. Follow him on Twitter @TomTayMMA.","url":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/author\/tom-taylor\/"}]}},"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/340110"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/54430"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=340110"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/340110\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/304241"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=340110"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=340110"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=340110"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}