Anthony Smith is truly showing his lionhearted nature at UFC Vegas 83 this weekend, as he steps in on short notice against Khalil Rountree Jr.
Smith, a.k.a. “Lionheart,” had been looking for a fight in January — and the promotion had told him to keep an eye on the winner of Rountree Jr. vs. Azamat Murzakanov. When Murzakanov dropped out of the bout, it made sense for Smith to step up.
“So I already kind of was expecting that it was probably going to be Khalil. And then they said Azamat was out, they wanted me to fight him [Rountree] in Austin,” Smith explained during the UFC Vegas 83 media day this week. “But that was like six days or something like that, it was really short notice. I said I would take the fight but I couldn’t make 205 that fast, so I asked for a catchweight. And everyone was good with the catchweight but Dana [White] isn’t a huge fan of catchweights, so he asked if I would make 205 this weekend, so it gave me an extra week to make the weight class. I said yeah.”
Podcast partner Michael Bisping has suggested that in taking the short-notice fight, Anthony Smith is “daring to be great.” Smith replied to that suggestion saying “Maybe. I love fighting, and I want to continue to work my way towards a title fight. And doing things like this puts you in a great position to do that.” Beyond that, Smith added, “sometimes you just want to feel alive.”
Smith also tackled a question about controversial Irish superstar Ian Machado Garry this week. The welterweight appears to be following in the footsteps of UFC megastar Conor McGregor, both in terms of early-career success, and controversy. Most recently, a beef over Garry’s relationship with his wife arose between the Irish star and UFC Middleweight champ Sean Strickland, with Strickland calling Garry “a cuck” over claims, since proved false, that Garry took on the name of his wife’s husband (Machado is her maiden name).
The young fighter also sparked controversy by bringing cameras into the gym, and has been shown the door by at least one facility.
“I think that, I’m going to tiptoe around this one, because I think that at one point in time we’ve all kind of been Ian Garry. I think that he’s young, and he’s got so much popularity and so many fans and there’s so many eyes on him, that maybe a lot of us did maybe some of the sh*t that Ian Garry has done or is doing, and it just wasn’t highlighted as much as Ian Garry,” observed Smith.
“I’m not a huge fan of bringing cameras into the gym, and he creates this illusion that maybe that he’s larger than he is. But I get it. I understand that he’s trying to do really great things and he believes in himself,” Smith continued. “And I never, ever speak on anybody’s personal life publicly. It’s kind of weird, but that’s their lives, they can do whatever they want, they’ll figure it out one way or another.”
“Any time I’ve been around him, he’s been nothing but respectful to me. His wife has been nothing but kind when I’ve been around.” The pair share a manager, so they interact a fair bit, though as Smith pointed out, it’s not as if they hang out. “But every interaction I’ve ever had with him is positive. I will say though, the one thing I will be very strong about with Ian Garry is, the Neil Magny thing really f*cking bothers me.”
Ahead of Garry’s fight with Magny, the Irish star pounced on comments Neil Magny made saying he “whupped” his kids, accusing the UFC’s welterweight wins leader of child abuse. “I’ve known Neil, sh*t 15 years, a large portion of my career. I’ve never seen Neil do anything that I would speak out against, I’ve never heard a bad story about Neil Magny,” said Smith. “So the whole story with the kids — it’s one thing to create some drama, and create some buzz around a fight, but not at the expense of the reputation of someone that’s as good of a man as Neil Magny. That’s the one kind of strong opinion I have on it. But other than that, I’ve had great experiences with [Ian Garry].”
Watch the full UFC Vegas 83 media day appearance by Anthony Smith above.
