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‘Lionheart’ had some bad weight cuts when he was fighting at middleweight. 

Anthony Smith has had a few bad weight cuts in his career, but the worst ones happened when he was fighting at middleweight.

Smith was reminded of them after he weighed in at 206 pounds for his fight against Magomed Ankalaev at UFC 277 this past July. He has fought at light heavyweight for over three years now, but this cut was a ‘tough one’ after he miscalculated how much he needed to shed before stepping on the scales. Smith still had a ways to go between Thursday night and Friday morning, which he was used to doing when he fought at middleweight. In fact, it was that routine and the subsequent effects of previous cuts that led him to the change in weight class.

‘Lionheart’ told Ariel Helwani during a recent appearance on The MMA Hour that his cut for Ankalaev was at a six on a scale from 1-10, but that paled in comparison to the cuts he had to middleweight.

“There were several times when I was cutting to ’85 that I wasn’t sure if I was going to live,” said Smith. “Yeah, it was bad. I used to have to kneel in the back behind the curtain for a long time. And then I’d have to hurry up and stand — like if they had the little weird [mechanical] scale, they would have to put it exactly where it said that I was on the check scale because if I had to stand there any longer and let them f—k around with it for too long, I’d pass out.

“So they would say, ‘What does he think he’s at?’ and then I’d tell them, ‘I’m right on it — 186 on the dot,’” continued Smith. “I’d have to kneel with my head up and as soon as I stood, my coaches would get me up, I’d stand on the scale and that’s why I was rushed to the back. Because I wasn’t going to be conscious for much longer. I couldn’t even walk from my hotel to the scale. If it was a five-minute walk, it would take me 15 minutes because every five steps or so, I’d have to kneel because I was trying to stay conscious.”

Since moving from 185 pounds to 205 pounds, Smith has found great success in the division. The No. 5 light heavyweight announced his arrival with three consecutive finishes of former UFC champions and challengers in Rashad Evans, Maurício Rua and Volkan Oezdemir before earning his first championship opportunity against ex-champion Jon Jones. He lost via unanimous decision but has remained a staple and perennial contender.

The Factory X product seemed poised for another run at gold with finishes of Devin Clark, Jimmy Crute and Ryan Spann, but that was halted after he suffered a second-round TKO loss to the aforementioned Ankalaev. Smith also suffered a leg injury, which he has undergone surgery to repair recently.

There is no word yet on when Smith expects to return to the Octagon.

Sean O’Malley isn’t too concerned with losing … despite claiming he’s undefeated when the record shows otherwise.

The 27-year-old Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) Bantamweight contender is preparing for the biggest fight of his young 17-fight career, which takes place on Oct. 22, 2022, at UFC 280. Flying all the way to Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, O’Malley faces the former champion of his division, No. 1-ranked contender, Petr “No Mercy” Yan.

Initially, the match up’s announcement left several in the community scratching their heads because of O’Malley’s No. 10 spot in the rankings accompanied by fighting to a no contest his last time out. Regardless, “Suga” is comfortable in more ways than one as the huge challenge approaches.

“The closer the fight gets, the more confident I’ll become,” O’Malley said to ESPN. “I’ll get back to camp, get dialed in, get back to sparring, get back to eating perfect, sleeping perfect, just getting everything dialed in. I’m just gonna get more confident as the fight gets closer. Then fight night, I’m gonna win that fight. Every fight that I go into, I’m okay with losing. I’m not attached to I have to win this fight. I’m gonna be a world champ someday, 100 percent. I’ve never been scared of losing, so I think the closer the fight gets, the more confident I’m gonna become.”

At UFC 276 last month (July 2, 2022), O’Malley went toe-to-toe with a perennial 135 pound contender, Pedro Munhoz. Unfortunately for both men, the fight resulted rather anti-climactically with Munhoz unable to continue after suffering an eye poke (watch highlights).

Between O’Malley and Yan, the winner will find themselves in a pretty cozy position among the crop of immediate contenders, especially considering that the title will be contested later in the night when the champion, Aljamain Sterling, defends against T.J. Dillashaw.

A fight between top-15 flyweights has been added to UFC 281. 

‘Meatball’ is headed to The Big Apple.

Molly McCann shares the Octagon with Erin Blanchfield at UFC 281, the upcoming pay-per-view event scheduled for Nov. 12 at Madison Square Garden in New York. ‘Cold Blooded’ announced the fight on Instagram.

McCann returns for her third appearance this year after two ‘Performance of the Night’ awarded knockouts. The Liverpudlian earned a ‘Knockout of the Year’ contender in front of a raucous crowd at the O2 Arena in London with a spinning back elbow KO of Luana Carolina at UFC Fight Night: Volkov vs. Aspinall this past March. She returned to the same venue and location for her next fight at UFC Fight Night: Blaydes vs. Aspinall, where she finished Hannah Goldy by first-round TKO courtesy of a spinning back elbow (again!) and follow-up punches.

The 32-year-old now holds two of six spinning elbow knockouts in UFC history. Ricardo Ramos (x2), Ji?í Procházka and Dong Hyun Kim hold the other four. Fresh off her win over Goldy, McCann also broke through the official rankings for the first time and landed at No. 15.

Blanchfield has yet to taste defeat since joining the UFC nearly a year ago. The 23-year-old defeated Sarah Alpar and Miranda Maverick at UFC Vegas 37 and UFC 269, respectively. She followed those performances up with a second-round guillotine choke of JJ Aldrich at UFC Vegas 56 this past June. Blanchfield is 9-1 as a professional, with her only loss coming to Tracy Cortez at Invicta FC 34 in 2019.

With the addition of McCann vs. Blanchfield, UFC 281 has two confirmed fights now. It is headlined by a middleweight fight between reigning champion Israel Adesanya and No. 5 ranked contender Alex Pereira. Stay tuned to Bloody Elbow for more updates to the event as they become available in the coming weeks.