Anthony Smith is keeping track of exactly what's going on with him and Alex Pereira.
It's unlikely that “Lionheart” will win another UFC title anytime soon, which is one reason why he's bummed that the current light heavyweight champion continues to develop him. In the most recent verbal volley between the two, Pereira issued Smith a $50,000 grappling challenge, which Smith happily accepted following his win over Vitor Petrino at UFC 301 last weekend.
In Smith's role as an analyst, he recently pointed out that Pereira, a former kickboxing star, has had incredible success in MMA even though his grappling is still developing. did. That has sparked a lot of back and forth between Smith, Pereira and Pereira's fans, but Smith wants to make it clear that he is only taking what the champion gives him.
“That's another thing that concerns me a lot,” Smith said. MMA hour. “Everywhere I was like, 'Oh, of course Anthony wants to wrestle Alex Pereira. Of course he only wants to do the mixed martial arts part.' Because that wasn't my fucking idea. It wasn't my idea. Every time the topic of grappling comes up with Alex Pereira, he brings it up like shit. I'm not in a position where I can confidently call out to him, so I've never challenged him to anything, let alone fight. Whatever he wants to do, the answer is yes.
“If he wants to fight, box, kickbox, wrestle, thumbwrestle, checkers, chess, Halo on Xbox, I won't let that happen. Whatever he wants to do, the answer is yes. But I'm not the one to keep challenging him. If he wants a grapple, yes I would definitely choose that over everything I just said. It'll be fun, sure. But I'm not the one to keep bringing it up.”
Pereira attended UFC 301 in Rio de Janeiro and witnessed Smith's fight firsthand. Once Smith was in the cage, “Poitan” pretended to be asleep and shared a video of himself gagging him on social media.
Smith didn't notice Pereira's antics in person, but later watched the video and admitted he found it funny.
“It's weird,” Smith said. “I'm not coming at him. I've never come at him like that. Of course you have the title belt in my division, so I'm like, 'What's your goal? ” and I answer, “What is your goal?” I want to fight the champion. I want to fight Alex Pereira. But he goes out of his way to try to bully me, and that's okay. That doesn't bother me and I actually think it's great and he has a great sense of humor so it's a lot of fun.
“As I always say, he's not just a guy with a serial killer mindset. He's very, very intelligent, so I enjoy that part. It's just weird to me.”
Smith's victory at UFC 301 not only made him the first fighter to defeat Petrino, but also marked Smith's first victory in Brazil. He previously fought in Belem in February 2018, suffering a knockout loss to Thiago Santos, which prompted Smith's career-changing move up to light heavyweight.
Since then, he's fought some of the best at 205 pounds, once challenging Jon Jones for UFC gold, and is approaching the latter stages of his career with patience and gratitude. Surprisingly, it's a philosophy he learned from Pereira's close friend and coach, Glover Teixeira.
“Grover gave me a lot of advice about life and career,” Smith said. “That's what he did. He gave 100 percent to every fight and fought just one at a time. And he just piled up enough 'one at a time' and before you know it he's earning the title.” He was caught up in a fight. ”