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Anthony Smith Expects To Finish Glover Teixeira At UFC Lincoln

Anthony Smith expects to earn a stoppage win over Glover Teixeira in the main event of UFC Lincoln. Smith will get a hometown fight in Nebraska after speculation was the fight would happen in Brazil. For “Lionheart” he’s eager for the fight and to fight a guy like Teixeira who he respects. “Yeah, I love […]

Anthony Smith expects to earn a stoppage win over Glover Teixeira in the main event of UFC Lincoln.

Smith will get a hometown fight in Nebraska after speculation was the fight would happen in Brazil. For “Lionheart” he’s eager for the fight and to fight a guy like Teixeira who he respects.

“Yeah, I love it, man,” he recently told MMA Junkie. “I’m more happy with the location, for sure. But I’m happy to bring a guy like Glover Teixeira to Lincoln. There’s no trash talk; we have a lot of respect for each other. He’s not going to come in and trash my state. He’ll obviously be in hostile territory, but he’ll get a warm welcome. Nebraska people are respectful, and they’re obviously going to be cheering for me, but I don’t think anybody’s going to treat him badly. I’m excited for it.”

Smith says the lead up to the fight will not be full of trash-talking as the two respect each other and have even shared a beer together. Yet, when the Octagon door closes, he knows they will be trying to knock one another out.

“He’s one of the good guys in this sport and, especially these days, I think some of those guys are a dying breed,” he said. “He’s just always been nothing but respectful to me. He helped me out a lot in Brazil. Any time we see each other, it’s an embrace, it’s a handshake and a hug. The last time I saw Glover, we had a beer together, so there’s no beef there.

“We’re both extremely high-level competitors. I know he’s competitive and he’s super-powerful and dangerous, so you can’t be too wrapped up in how nice a guy he is, because he’s going to go out there and try to take my head off, for sure.”

In the end, Anthony Smith is confident he’ll his hand raised and eyes a fourth-round stoppage win.

“I think it’ll be a third or fourth-round finish,” Smith said. “I’m not sure if it’ll be a knockout or a submission, but I think that eventually, he’ll get frustrated and he’ll have to start taking bad shots. Whether I can take advantage of that with a submission or a knockout, I’m not sure. It’ll take me a little while.

“Glover’s a tough dude, he’s crafty, he’s been around a long time. It’s going to take a while to break a guy like that down and mentally, he’s hard to break. I do believe I’ll finish Glover, though.”

Do you think Anthony Smith will be able to finish Glover Teixeira at UFC Lincoln?

Anthony Smith Weighs In On UFC 247 Judging Controversy

Anthony Smith believes Joe Soliz and the Texas Commission of Licensing and Regulation have some explaining to do. UFC 247 was marred by questionable score totals at the judges’ table. Fight fans were up in arms about the split decision verdict in…

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Anthony Smith: Jon Jones ‘Looked Lost’ Against Dominick Reyes

Anthony Smith feels Jon Jones wasn’t too sure of himself during his bout with Dominick Reyes. This past Saturday night (Feb. 8), Jones defended his UFC light heavyweight championship against Reyes. “Bones” vs. “The Devastator” served as UFC 247’s headliner. Jones scored the unanimous decision victory after five rounds of action. Smith Weighs In On […]

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Anthony Smith: Dominick Reyes ‘Has No Idea What He’s Getting Into’ Against Jon Jones

Dominick Reyes will find out that there is more to just fighting Jon Jones as fight week continues. That’s according to Anthony Smith who failed in his attempt at defeating Jones when they met at UFC 235 last March. Reyes will look to have better luck when he faces “Bones” in the main event of […]

Dominick Reyes will find out that there is more to just fighting Jon Jones as fight week continues.

That’s according to Anthony Smith who failed in his attempt at defeating Jones when they met at UFC 235 last March. Reyes will look to have better luck when he faces “Bones” in the main event of UFC 247 on Saturday night.

“The Devastator” is undefeated and very confident of his chances. But Smith believes he has no idea what he’s getting into:

“Dominick Reyes has no idea what he’s getting into. And it’s not even the X’s and the O’s,” Smith said on Ariel Helwani’s MMA Show (via MMA News). “There’s so much more to fighting Jon Jones that I learned now but would’ve been pretty helpful before the fight.

“And there’s a lot of things that guys don’t talk about because I think some people are afraid that it’s gonna make you look like a pansy or something. Like you’re not man enough to handle it but there’s a lot of stuff that goes into fighting Jon Jones and Dominick Reyes is about to find that out.”

“Lionheart” touched on one of those things — Jones messing with the schedules of his opponents during fight week due to the favoritism that he receives.

“Alright, I’ll just be honest. All the people that treat you so well the week of a fight and the people that you feel like are your friends, it’s very different when you’re fighting Jon Jones and you go into the fight week,” Smith explained. “Usually, fight weeks are pretty relaxing for the most part like you got lots of media and stuff, and it’s not like I’ve never been in the main event before I fought Jon Jones.

“It’s not like I’m not used to that but he’s very much the favorite. He messes with your schedule, he just messes with you the whole time and by the time you get to the fight, you’re mentally exhausted.”

For his part, Reyes seems fine but all that could change in the next few days.

What do you make of Smith’s comments?

Anthony Smith Says Dominick Reyes Has ‘No Idea’ What He’s Getting Into With Jon Jones

Anthony Smith isn’t convinced that Dominick Reyes is aware of how calculated Jon Jones is. Reyes will challenge Jones for the UFC light heavyweight championship this Saturday night (Feb. 8). The title clash is set to serve as the main event of UF…

The post Anthony Smith Says Dominick Reyes Has ‘No Idea’ What He’s Getting Into With Jon Jones appeared first on MMA News.

Anthony Smith Nearly Amputated His Finger To Keep Fighting

Anthony Smith nearly cut his finger off to save his fighting career. “Lionheart” was recently a guest on “The Ariel Helwani MMA Show,” and detailed his recent hand issues, which required two surgeries to repair. Smith apparently injured his hand during his submission win over Alexander Gustafsson in Sweden last June. It was his first […]

Anthony Smith nearly cut his finger off to save his fighting career.

“Lionheart” was recently a guest on “The Ariel Helwani MMA Show,” and detailed his recent hand issues, which required two surgeries to repair. Smith apparently injured his hand during his submission win over Alexander Gustafsson in Sweden last June. It was his first victory since his defeat to Jon Jones for the UFC light heavyweight title at UFC 235.

Smith’s initial surgery failed, which forced doctors to put him under the knife once more to seemingly solve the issue. However, Smith had issues making a fist after the second surgery. (H/T MMA Fighting)

“I had two [surgeries],” Smith said. “The first one failed. I went into my six-week checkup after my first surgery and the plate was broken and the bone had shifted back again… So they went back in, they took the plate off, they drilled one hole in my femur, one in my shin, and they took out the spongy bone material they used for bone grafts in my hand and then they put another plate on the side of it instead of on top because there are so many large holes.

“So they put it on the side and then filled the holes with the spongy bone from my leg. So that was a rough one. Then I couldn’t close my hand for probably two months. My left hand.”

Even months after the second surgery, Smith was still having issues trying to make a fist, as his index finger refused to close. Smith almost amputated his finger so he could resume his fighting career.

“I almost cut my finger off,” Smith said. “We were going to amputate my pointer finger because all the scar tissue was grabbing onto the ligament and not allowing it to close and slide back and forth. So the idea was that if we amputated the finger and then screwed those ligaments to the bone after it healed, that I could still use the other three fingers and my thumb to grapple but there would still technically be a knuckle there so I could punch.”

Thankfully, Smith crossed paths with a physical therapist, who he called a “crazy old lady,” who used some form of electric therapy on Smith’s hand to solve the issue. In hindsight, he’s thankful his wife and the UFC encouraged him to seek other forms of treatment for his finger before amputating it.

“Some crazy old lady did this different type of therapy where they attached electricity to my wrist and my forearm and moved it around and was able to catch the muscle that closes the hand and really, she just crushed through the scar tissue,” Smith said. “So once she put electricity to it, it forced my hand closed – because the bone was still healing and by forcefully closing it, you’re putting a lot of tension on that break.

“I couldn’t close it myself because I didn’t have the strength, and as I’m not moving it, the scar tissue just continues to build and build and build so by attaching electricity to it, it’s essentially me closing my own hand without someone else doing it with all that tension on the break. So once we tore through all that scar tissue the first time, we just did that every single day until I was able to get the movement back in it and now it’s good… I was ready to go but my wife and the UFC wanted to explore other options first.

“So that crazy lady saved my finger for sure. I was ready just to say screw it all, I’m sick of this rehab stuff and scraping the scar tissue out of it and continually opening my hand up to get the scar tissue out. I was just ready to get back to fighting and cutting my finger off, at that time, was the fastest way.”

Now, Smith is set to make his return to action. He’ll headline the UFC Lincoln card from the Pinnacle Bank Arena in Lincoln, Nebraska on April 25. Smith takes on fellow former light heavyweight title challenger Glover Teixeira, who is currently on a three-fight win streak.

Should Smith get past the Brazilian veteran in April, he could find himself back in the hunt for a shot at the light heavyweight throne, and, perhaps, a chance to once again attempt to hand Jon Jones his first defeat. That is, if this man doesn’t do it first.

What do you think about Smith nearly amputating his finger as an option to keep fighting?