'Hold this': UFC fighter Anthony Smith hands referee his TOOTH as fighter breaks eye socket and nose in gory hammering (VIDEO)

UFC fighter Anthony Smith picked his knocked-out tooth off the canvas and handed it to the referee while opponent Glover Teixeira was on top of him during a gruesome beatdown that ended in a fifth-round stoppage on Wednesday.

Smith was taking a savage beating against veteran Teixeira at UFC Fight Night in Florida when he stretched out a glove while he was being pinned to the floor, salvaged his missing tooth and passed it to concerned official Jason Herzog. 

The man known as 'Lionheart' reportedly lost two teeth and suffered a fractured eye socket and broken nose during a bloody beating in the UFC light heavyweight contest in Florida, which left him unable to bite down on his mouthguard between rounds four and five, when viewers watched him struggle to offer any defense as Teixeira rained down blows.

“I couldn’t keep my mouthpiece in place due to the missing tooth,” Smith admitted after being stopped late on. “I looked down and it was on the canvas. So I grabbed it and handed it to him.”

The former title challenger was only rescuing a veneer when he picked the denture off the deck, according to ESPN, although there were also reports he had lost real teeth in the brutal exchange.

“When the ref made it clear he needed to see something or he was gonna stop it, I did what I had to do to stay in the fight,” Smith said.

"I come out of battle with my shield or I come out on it. That's my rule, period."

Smith added that he was “good” with the decision made by his corner not to withdraw him from a damaging scrap, but other fighters voiced their shock at his team.

“The coaches need to save their fighter,” warned welterweight Mike Perry, backed up by strawweight Tatiana Suarez, who said she had “never been so relieved to see a fight stopped.”

Featherweight champion Alex Volkanovski called the pummelling “hard to watch” and middleweight Kelvin Gastelum argued that fighters “need to choose corners wisely”, adding that Smith had been “failed”.

Teixeira, who embraced Smith in a blood-stained t-shirt and told him “I love you, brother” after the fight, told Seconds Out: “He called the referee and said, ‘here, ref, my tooth – hold my tooth” or something like that, because maybe he didn’t want it on the floor.

“I said, ‘Hey, Anthony, sorry man but it’s just part of the job. He went to the hospital and I hope he’ll be okay.”

The Brazilian’s 14 victories give him the third-highest number of light heavyweight wins in modern UFC history, one behind Ryan Bader and six short of champion Jon Jones’ total.

Jones, who has beaten both men, was predictably scathing of Smith’s performance, declaring: “Anthony Smith talking about outlasting me to become a world champion.

“It seems like almost everyone who trash talks me during their fight week ends up losing. These boys are thinking about being the champ instead of focusing on what it takes to get there.”

Heavyweight champion Francis Ngannou was more generous. “Anthony Smith deserves his nickname,” he said. “Incredible performance for Teixeira, a 40-year-old man.”