Anthony Smith is a scary individual…
He gets paid to snap limbs and beat people unconscious. And he’s very good at it. So good, in fact, that he’s a legit title contender in the Ultimate Fighting Championships (UFC) light-heavyweight division.
Stands to reason that anyone dumb enough to break into this guy’s house – unarmed – would get the mother of all beatings then, right?Except that’s not what happened at all when Smith went six minutes with a drugged-up home invader.
The chaos that ensued during Smith’s pre-dawn life or death brawl holds important lessons for anyone who expects to survive a violent encounter.
“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,” Smith said.
“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.”
So, despite being one of the hardest hitters in the UFC…
Despite training every day to beat other humans with punches, kicks, knees, elbows, joint locks and strangle holds…
And despite weighing 60 pounds more than the crazed man screaming in his kitchen at 4 a.m…
Smith couldn’t turn the guy’s lights out. Things got so crazy that he had his mother-in-law get him a knife from the butcher’s block to try and scare the invader into stopping. No dice.
And with only one hand to hold his drugged-up opponent, Smith lost control and had to put the knife down to get a hold of the guy again. After almost six minutes of all out life or death combat, the cops finally showed up on scene and subdued the intruder.
But, here’s why this is such an important story:
By his own admission, Smith wasn’t at all prepared for what happened. He had no real plan for what to do in the event someone broke into his house.
No one in his family knew what to do or how best to respond to stay alive. Any illusion that he was just going to “knock somebody out” if they crept into his home was shattered on that kitchen floor.
Whatever drugs were coursing through that 165-pound man that morning gave him the superhuman strength to take a six-minute thrashing and keep coming.
My point is, you must plan ahead for what to do during a violent home invasion. You and your entire family. It’s why I keep multiple flashlights and two guns (in rapid access safes) on my nightstand.
It’s why I’ve trained my wife and kids on exactly where to go and what to do in the event of a break-in. Because as you’ve just read, it doesn’t matter who you are – even a top-tier UFC fighter – you still have to plan and prepare.
The best plans are simple, but you still need to have one, so please figure yours out, if you haven’t done so yet.
