It’s not just some critics and fans downplaying Anthony Smith’s accomplishments ahead of UFC Moncton, but his opponent as well — and he plans to make Volkan Oezdemir eat his words come Saturday night.
Moncton, NB — Anthony Smith is none too pleased about how Volkan Oezdemir has been talking about him recently. ‘Lionheart’ faces ‘No Time’ in due time at UFC Moncton on Saturday night in the chilly Canadian province of New Brunswick. There, a light heavyweight bout that has all the makings of a number one contender’s match will go down. Smith’s rise is analogous to Oezdemir’s own a little over a year ago. Yet Smith has the current momentum, coming off knockout wins over two former UFC light heavyweight champions.
Oezdemir hasn’t exactly been resting on his laurels, but he’s been kept out of action since losing a title challenge against Daniel Cormier in January.
For Smith, this fight is a chance to quell some doubts, not with himself, but the critics at large. “Half the fans are excited about it, the other half think I’ve been beating up broken old men,” he said of his run at light heavyweight. “So I’m excited to fight someone that’s ranked in the top five, you know Volkan’s number two. And hopefully shut the doubters up a little bit, and show the world what I can do.”
On whether it bothers him, well, it “depends on the day. Some days it bothers me more than others,” Smith said of the criticism he’s received. “When that Shogun fight came available, you guys can go back and look, there wasn’t a whole lot of people lining up for that fight. And I took it on two weeks notice. Shogun was ranked in the top ten. He was on a three fight winning streak, he hadn’t lost in a couple years. So it does bother me a little bit when people discredit my opponents. It’s not so much discrediting me, it’s discrediting the people I’ve been fighting”
“And then other days I’m kind of like ‘ah f*ck it, whatever.'” A win Saturday will be hard to discredit.
“I promise you that I’m going to demolish Volkan. It’s not even going to be close.”
In any case, against Volkan Oezdemir, he’s looking to make a statement. “I promise you that I’m going to demolish Volkan. It’s not even going to be close,” Smith promised. “I’m telling you, it’s going to be a dominant performance. What you guys are going to read is that Volkan didn’t even deserve to be at the top, and he just had a quick rise, and no one really knew how good he was, and now we really know he’s really not that good. That’s exactly what you guys are going to read on Monday.”
Ultimately, however, “as long as I get to a title shot, I don’t care what people say. It doesn’t matter to me. It’s kind of been the narrative my whole career. It’s not ever been about how good I am, it’s always been about how bad my opponents are. That’s the narrative I used to try to change all the time, and now I just don’t care.”
It’s impressive to see where Smith has taken his career to, just a short time after a crushing loss to Thiago Santos at middleweight. That low point is something he holds in high regard, however, even keeping a reminder of it pinned to his Twitter page. Because had he not lost that night, “honestly I would have kept making the cut until I couldn’t do it anymore,” he told Cageside Press on Thursday. “Just the way I felt in that fight, it just wasn’t worth it to me anymore.”
“The weight cut was the hardest part of the entire ordeal. I’d fight that fight ten times over exactly the way it went rather than cut that weight again.” Luckily, light heavyweight has seen the rebirth of his career.
The landscape in the division, mind you, is changing. Jon Jones is back, and fighting for the 205lb title against Alexander Gustafsson. On that situation, Smith said that “I’ll never talk about anything Jon Jones does personally. That’s his own life, he wants to mess it up that’s on him.” There’s some good that has come out of Jones’ return, however. “As unfair as it does seem that Jon Jones is getting a title shot, the title is back in rotation. That’s something D.C. wasn’t doing. I said a hundred times, I never thought that D.C. was going to come back to 205. I understand, he’s the double-champ and he wanted to hold onto that as long as he could. I can’t say I would have done any different.”
“I’m just glad that it’s moving again,” Smith added. “I just hope that Jon doesn’t beat Gustafsson and then go up to heavyweight and hold the division up again.”
Back to Saturday night. Smith hasn’t taken too kindly to some of the talk building up to his main event battle with Oezdemir. Something he plans on reminding the Swiss fighter of on Saturday. As to what in particular, “just the stupid sh*t, like now it’s time for me to find out what it’s like at the top of the division. What the hell does that mean? How’d it work out for him the last time he was at the top of the division? Didn’t work out too goddamned good if you ask me.”
Beyond that, “just talking about how I’m not a great striker, and he only wanted to fight me because of the hype that I have right now, that I don’t really deserve it. That’s just some arrogant shit.”
“I told him a month ago, be very careful what you say, because you don’t want to feel stupid later on when I throw it in your face.”
Anthony Smith meets Volkan Oezdemir in the main event of UFC Moncton (UFC Fight Night 138) on Saturday, October 27 at the Avenir Centre in Moncton, New Brunswick. The card airs on Fox Sports 1 (TSN 5 in Canada).
