Anthony Smith is clearing up everything on what precisely is the deal with him and Alex Pereira.
"Lionheart" is probably not going to get another UFC title shot soon, which is one motivation behind why he's confounded that the authoritative light heavyweight champion continues to bring him up. The latest verbal volley between the two saw Pereira issue a $50,000 hooking challenge to Smith, which Smith readily acknowledged following his success over Vitor Petrino at UFC 301 this previous end of the week.
In Smith's job as an expert, he as of late brought up that Pereira, a previous kickboxing star, has made mind blowing progress in MMA regardless of his actually creating catching. That prompted a lot of to and fro among Smith and Pereira — and Pereira's fans — and Smith needs to clarify that he's just taking what the champion is giving him.
"Here is something else I get a ton of poo about," Smith said on The MMA Hour. "All over the place, 'Gracious, obviously Anthony needs to hook Alex Pereira. Obviously he just believes should do one piece of blended hand to hand fighting.' Since it wasn't my f*cking thought. It wasn't my f*cking thought. Each and every time catching has been raised with Alex Pereira, he f*cking brought it up. I've never provoked him to anything, not so much as a battle, since I haven't been in a position where I can certainly get down on him. The response to whatever the f*ck he maintains that should do is yes.
"To battle, box, kickbox, wrestle, f*cking thumb wrestle, checkers, chess, Radiance on Xbox, I don't give a f*ck. Anything he desires to do, the response is yes. Yet, I'm not the person who continues to challenge him. If he has any desire to hook, indeed, I will totally do that. I would pick that over all that I recently said, that would be the most diversion for me, without a doubt. Yet, I'm not the person who continues to bring it up."
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Pereira was in participation at UFC 301 in Rio de Janeiro to observe Smith's battle firsthand. As Smith entered the enclosure, "Poatan" professed to be sleeping and shared video of his gag via online entertainment.
However Smith didn't see Pereira's tricks live, he watched the video later and he concedes he thought that it is entertaining.
"It's unusual," Smith said. "I don't come at him. I've never come for him like that. Obviously, you have the title belt in my division, so when individuals get out, 'Whatever's your objective?' I need to battle the boss. I need to battle Alex Pereira. Yet, he makes a special effort to pick at me, which is fine. It doesn't irritate me, I believe it's great really, it's sort of loads of fun since he has a comical inclination.
"Like I've generally said, he's not this person that is only a chronic executioner mentality. He has an awareness of what's actually funny, he's entertaining, he has a great heartbeat via virtual entertainment and he works really hard of embellishment and zigzagging all around media stuff. He's extremely, astute, so I partake in that piece of it. It's only abnormal to me."
Smith's success at UFC 301 not just made him the principal contender to overcome Petrino, it was Smith's very first success in Brazil. He recently battled in Belém in February 2018, when he experienced a knockout misfortune to Thiago Santos that provoked a move up to light heavyweight that changed Smith's profession.
He's since battled the most elite at 205 pounds, once testing Jon Jones for UFC gold, and he's coming the last option phases of his vocation with tolerance and appreciation. Shockingly, it's a way of thinking that he got from Pereira's dear companion and mentor, Glover Teixeira.
"Glover offered me a great deal of life guidance, a ton of profession exhortation," Smith said. "Indeed he did "That. He just hurled himself 100% into each and every battle and just took each in turn. What's more, he just put enough 'one-at-a-times' together and he wound up in a title battle."
