A former foe of the UFC 239 headliners, Anthony Smith believes Jon Jones will emerge victorious over Thiago Santos. Smith competed against both Jones and Santos. He fell short in his bid to become a UFC light heavyweight champion back in March when he …
A former foe of the UFC 239 headliners, Anthony Smith believes Jon Jones will emerge victorious over Thiago Santos. Smith competed against both Jones and Santos. He fell short in his bid to become a UFC light heavyweight champion back in March when he suffered a unanimous decision loss to “Bones.” Back in Feb. 2018, […]
Jon Jones is one of the greatest fighters of all-time. The light heavyweight champion was the youngest UFC champion and has never actually lost the belt by losing. He has only lost one fight, which was a DQ loss, and normally breaks down his opponents in the Octagon. Anthony Smith, who fought Jones at UFC […]
Jon Jones is one of the greatest fighters of all-time. The light heavyweight champion was the youngest UFC champion and has never actually lost the belt by losing. He has only lost one fight, which was a DQ loss, and normally breaks down his opponents in the Octagon.
Anthony Smith, who fought Jones at UFC 235 knows that to be true. He said after the fight he did not fight his game plan and it costed him there. Now, looking back at the fight, Smith believes it is too hard to train for Jones without fighting him. Meaning, no one will beat “Bones” on their first attempt.
“I said the same sh*t going into it. It is not that simple. Now that I have 25 minutes of data on Jon Jones it totally looks different the second time around. But, you are right it is different, he is very different. There is no way of knowing that or training for that until you are in there with him. That’s the thing,” Smith said to The Mac Life (as transcribed by BJPENN.com). “I don’t want to just outright say it, but it is going to be hard to beat Jon Jones the first time for anybody, it really is. Unless you catch him, he’s going to be hard to beat on the first time. Thiago could catch anybody though, that dude is dangerous, he’s explosive, he could hurt anybody. I just don’t see him getting close enough to Jon to do it.”
Anthony Smith had some words for former boxing champion Paulie Malignaggi after his recent comments. Malignaggi suffered a unanimous decision loss to Artem Lobov with a 48-47 score on all three judges’ scorecards at the Bare-Knuckle FC (BKFC) 6 event. The show went down on June 22, 2019, in Tampa, Florida and aired on pay-per-view […]
Anthony Smith had some words for former boxing champion Paulie Malignaggi after his recent comments.
Malignaggi suffered a unanimous decision loss to Artem Lobov with a 48-47 score on all three judges’ scorecards at the Bare-Knuckle FC (BKFC) 6 event. The show went down on June 22, 2019, in Tampa, Florida and aired on pay-per-view (PPV).
In a recent video, Malignaggi responded to the criticism from Chael Sonnen and Ben Askren about the fight.
Malignaggi told Counter Punch Boxing (via MMA News), “Ben Askren, the same shit. I did it with one hand. I did it with half a hand. And I did it bare knuckle. Go and do it. Go put on gloves if it’s not that hard.”
Smith saw these comments and took to his official Twitter account where he pointed out some logic to “The Magic Man”:
“What were you saying about your hand? Mindset means everything. You aren’t fighting one-handed, Paulie. You’re fighting with two hands, one is just broken.”
Smith knows what it’s like to deal with broken hands. In his latest fight, he broke his own. Smith beat three-time UFC light heavyweight title challenger Alexander Gustafsson in the main event of UFC Stockholm.
Before that fight, Smith was looking to get back on the winning path as he was coming off a unanimous decision loss to UFC light heavyweight champion Jon Jones in the main event of UFC 235.
It’s safe to say Luke Rockhold’s prediction for Anthony Smith vs. Alexander Gustafsson earlier this month was way off. The Californian expected the multi-time 205-pound title challenger to walk through “Lionheart” fairly easily. Instead, Smith took home a submission victory over the Swede in front of his native crowd in Stockholm. Smith and Rockhold have […]
It’s safe to say Luke Rockhold’s prediction for Anthony Smith vs. Alexander Gustafsson earlier this month was way off.
The Californian expected the multi-time 205-pound title challenger to walk through “Lionheart” fairly easily. Instead, Smith took home a submission victory over the Swede in front of his native crowd in Stockholm. Smith and Rockhold have had a ton of issues with one another over the past several months, taking shots at each other through the media.
With Rockhold now moving up to light heavyweight, and Smith having solidified himself as one of the top contenders in the weight class, a meeting between the bitter rivals is almost inevitable. Speaking to Submission Radio recently, Rockhold discussed Smith’s victory over Gustafsson in Sweden. Rockhold maintained that his feelings on Smith’s skill set have not changed after his submission victory over “The Mauler”:
“My feelings have not changed whatsoever. Like, I said, Gus didn’t come to fight. Anybody who has any time for the sport could see that he didn’t do a damn thing in that fight and he found a way out when the opportunity presented itself. It was an easy exit for him. So, that’s that. Obviously, the guy can fight. He could fight, but he just doesn’t want it anymore.”
Rockhold makes his light heavyweight debut against Jan Blachowicz at UFC 239 on pay-per-view (PPV) from the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada on July 6. After that, if a fight with Smith comes into play, Rockhold would be more than happy to take on the Texan:
“You never know what’s to come. I’m gonna focus on fighting B?achowicz, and I’m gonna put this man away and then I’m gonna look forward. And if there’s opportunities out there, we’ll see what’s up. You know, Jon Jones is right there, and I’m not looking to dance around too long.
“If there’s an opportunity and things work out and I perform and he performs, you never know, you never know. And if there’s a delay – there’s also a business side of this thing too. So, Anthony Smith could work his way in too. Anybody above me, I’m looking to make a mark on their faces.”
Anthony Smith picked up the biggest win of his career at UFC Stockholm. There, he silenced the Swedish crowd by submitting Alexander Gustafsson. Although it was a huge win for the American, Luke Rockhold was not impressed by it as he believes Gustafsso…
Anthony Smith picked up the biggest win of his career at UFC Stockholm. There, he silenced the Swedish crowd by submitting Alexander Gustafsson. Although it was a huge win for the American, Luke Rockhold was not impressed by it as he believes Gustafsson did not show up to fight. “It looked like he retired before […]
Corey Anderson went after Anthony Smith in a series of posts on social media that saw him rip the title contender. Anderson is currently on a three-fight winning streak with wins over Patrick Cummins, Glover Teixeira, and Ilir Latifi by unanimous decision. The top contender took issue with Smith over how he got a title […]
Corey Anderson went after Anthony Smith in a series of posts on social media that saw him rip the title contender.
Anderson is currently on a three-fight winning streak with wins over Patrick Cummins, Glover Teixeira, and Ilir Latifi by unanimous decision. The top contender took issue with Smith over how he got a title shot against UFC light heavyweight champion Jon Jones.
According to Anderson, he doesn’t think Smith “earned his stripes” in the division before getting this title shot. This led to Smith recently responding to Anderson and even Luke Rockhold for their comments about him by stating that they have to earn a fight against him.
This led to Anderson firing back by taking to his official Twitter account to compare their records. He would then mock Smith’s performance against Jones. While this is a great beef to follow, a fight between them will have to wait.
Corey Anderson Rips The Young Contender
That’s due to Smith recovering from hand surgery with his expected return to be in December at the earliest. Anderson wrote the following:
“I came back from vacay to this? Allow me to retort, Anthony Smith. Unlike your buddy Luke Rockhold, I’ve been doing stuff in THIS DIVISION since I signed in 2014. 14 fights, 12 of which were ranked, 9 of which I dominated. 1 notable win and you talkin? #b*tchheart #fightme. 3 of your 4 wins weren’t even relevant. You were just a “pretty face” (so to say) for them to put some hype behind so they could feed you to Jones and he could put you on his lap and spank you like a 3 year old child.
LIONHEART?! You literally sat on the canvas in fetal position and got punched on. The toughest thing you did was not take the DQ. Other than [that] get the F outta here calling my name unless you gonna knuckle up. You were a punching bag for Volkan Oezdemir, then he gassed in the 4th [round] and Alexander Gustafsson was saucing you up as well but he also lacked on the ground. But WE both know you aren’t taking me down, you can’t deal with my movement, and you KNOW 100% I’m not gonna gas. Soo? So all in all I DON’T TALK SH*T . . . I STATE FACTS. Don’t speak my name unless you signing on the dotted line. #earnedit #boutthatlife”