That headline is not hyperbole. The greatest MMA fight to ever take place occurred on April 5th, 2020 at 4:00 AM. I feel inclined to share this info with you because it is my opinion that this fight never received the national attention it deserved. Sure, maybe you remember seeing an ESPN headline about an intruder breaking into a UFC fighter’s house. But did you read the story? Did you listen to the 40 minute interview with Ariel Helwani? I’m guessing you didn’t. And that’s OK. It’s not your fault. You weren’t aware that it was the most entertaining fight in MMA history until right now. So let’s get you up to speed.
I understand that you probably don’t want to watch a 40 minute interview with two guys you’ve never heard of. I didn’t think I would either when I first came across that video. But it’s there for your viewing pleasure if you decide to reconsider. “I’ll be at the Red Lobster in case you change your mind, Shooter!” So I will do my best to give you the Snake cliffnotes of Smith vs. Intruder below. But let me assure you, once you read the fight highlights you are going to want to fire up the video. And once you consume the first 5 minutes of this interview you won’t be able to stop.
I was first drawn to this story after my brother sent me this ESPN article. In the article, it describes how a young man broke into the home of UFC fighter Anthony Smith for no apparent reason and proceeded to scream “at the top of his lungs” until Smith emerged from the bedroom. Smith made some sort of takedown attempt which the Intruder fended off and a physical altercation ensued. The altercation turned into a full fledged UFC bout at some point as Smith was quoted saying the following:
“No normal human is able to fight like that. I’m by no means the baddest dude on the planet. But he’s a regular Joe and I had a hard time dealing with him. And he took everything that I gave him — every punch, every knee, every elbow. He took every single one of them and kept fighting me.”
“I’m not lying when I said it was one of the toughest fights I’ve had in my whole life. I went into that fight ready to die. Nobody smart breaks into a house in the middle of the night unarmed. … When they break in at night, it’s to hurt people.”
Despite Smith reportedly weighing 205 pounds and the Intruder coming in at 170 pounds, the Intruder managed to continue to absorb blows, at one point he even fought off a knife-wielding Smith. After an approximately 5 minute-long round, the police showed up to call off the fight. It should be noted that at no point did the intruder tap out despite the barrage of strikes Smith inflicted upon him. The aftermath of the bout left a bloodied computer room and several cuts and swelling across the Intruders face.
So who the hell is this Intruder guy and how could he go 5 minutes with a UFC light-heavyweight who has accumulated 33 victories? The Intruder was identified as former Nebraska high school wrestling standout Luke Haberman. While I don’t doubt that his previous wrestling experience gives him a a slight advantage over the average joe in a fight vs Smith, I would also like to speculate that some sort of “upper” type drug is most likely at play here. Crack, speed, PCP, something like that.
The below video shows the Intruder moments before his entrance into ring. *WARNING* Be prepared to lose a couple nights sleep after you watch this video and also turn down your volume to the LOWEST possible setting before pressing play.
.@lionheartasmith says he's still ready to fight on 4/25 even after he fought off an intruder at his home over the weekend. This is video for the suspect after he allegedly broke into another man's home before going to Smith's. Smith describes what happened.@3NewsNowOmaha pic.twitter.com/mGwSlTjimo
— Jake Wasikowski (@jakewasikowski) April 9, 2020
If all of the above details have still not convinced you to tune into the entire Smith and Helwani interview then I will list some bullet points of the critical interview moments. Do I have something more important that I could be doing on my Tuesday night? Certainly. But I refuse to let some of the greatest commentary in MMA history continue to fly under the radar.
- (0:53-2:37) – Smith describing the initial face-to-face encounter
- Intruder screaming with everything he’s got, flexing at Smith, and acting as though Smith was in the wrong place, not himself
- (4:17-4:52) – Beginning of the fight
- Smith goes for take down and chokehold and in the process realizes he is dealing with someone young, skinny, but alarmingly strong and has a great jaw
- (6:50-7:26) – Smith’s mother-in-law hands him a carving knife
- (15:15-17:58) – Smith describing the level of difficulty trying to “put him away”
- Smith is basically preparing to die as he attempts to subdue the Intruder
- (18:58-19:57) – Cops have arrived and Intruder who is covered in blood apologies to Smith for the inconvenience
- Sometimes the best apology is a simple one. “Sorry about that man.”
- (19:57-20:59) – The Intruder manages to fight Smith as politely as humanly possible
- At one point the Intruder is able to hold his legs still to avoid kicking Smith’s wife, all while fighting Smith at 100% with his upper body
- (25:26-27:11) – Casual conversation about the blood cleanup duties
- (32:42-33:20) – Smith talking about how his UFC skills translated to the Intruder fight