Anthony
Wint says his toughest opponent was his gambling addiction.

Wint was signed as an undrafted free agent by the New York Jets in
2018 and waived the next year. He desperately started preparing for
a comeback to the NFL, which never materialized. Having spent all
his savings, Wint used to live out of his car when a serious
gambling addiction emerged. He recently detailed how it came
about.

Anthony Wint says staying away from gambling in Las Vegas
tested him more than Matthew Adams or Terrance Chatman

It all started back in college when Wint made $1,000 out of $300
that his friend’s father had given him. He claims this sparked a
habit that he took eight years to resolve.

“When that [NFL comeback] didn’t happen, I was sitting there broke,
homeless, hungry… In college, my teammate’s dad gave me and my
teammate both $300 to gamble with. I turned that $300 into $1,000,
and in my head a switch went off,” Wint told Ariel Helwani. “I was
like, ‘I’ve been homeless my whole life. I’ve been trying to help
my mom out. We’ve been in poverty all our lives. I just made $700
in two hours.’ That was the trap. That was the trap of the devil.
And he had me in those chains for eight years…”

Wint recently earned an
Ultimate Fighting Championship contract with a first-round
knockout win over Matthew
Adams on
Dana White’s Contender Series. He refused to leave Las Vegas
without locking in his UFC debut.

Wint made an 11-day turnaround for his Octagon debut, finishing
Terrance
Chatman at
UFC Sacramento. He says avoiding gambling while in Las Vegas
was a bigger challenge than Adams or Chatman.

“The battle wasn’t Matthew
Adams, the battle wasn’t Terrance
Chatman,” Wint added. “The battle was having me sit in Vegas
and not gamble. And by the grace of God, I was able to sit and
would see slot machines and blackjack tables and know that I was
stronger than the addiction I had before.”

Anthony
Wint opens up about experiencing homelessness and overcoming an
eight-year gambling addiction:

“When that [NFL comeback] didn’t happen, I was sitting there broke,
homeless, hungry.

In college, my teammate’s dad gave me $300 to gamble with. I turned
that $300 into… pic.twitter.com/OkhQ77VVEH

— Ariel Helwani (@arielhelwani)
September 2, 2026