Outside Source
While most of the speculation on UFC heavyweight and light heavyweight champion Daniel Cormier’s next fight has centered on potential heavyweight opponents, Cormier has also made note of someone he’s eyeing at light heavyweight: The legendary Mauricio “Shogun” Rua.
One rising name at 205 pounds has something to say about the Cormier-Rua idea: Anthony Smith.
The fighter nicknamed “Lionheart” has all the respect in the world for DC, but, Smith will fight Rua in the main event of UFC Hamburg on Sunday, and he’s not exactly down with the idea it’s a foregone conclusion Rua is going to win.
“I saw DC call out Shogun,” Smith told MMA Fighting. “But it was like, ‘you know he has a fight,’ right? But that’s OK. If Shogun is on DC’s radar, and I go out there and beat Shogun, that’s my chance to make my statement about where I belong.”
Smith’s road to the fight with Rua took a few twists and turns. Smith is coming off his highest-profile victory to date, his first-round knockout of Rashad Evans at UFC 225, which marked his fourth victory in his past five fights, all of which have come by way of the KO.
The Omaha-based Smith had hoped to parlay his victory over Evans into a spot on the UFC’s upcoming card in Lincoln, Neb., figuring it would be his only chance to fight near his hometown any time soon. He was even willing to compete at heavyweight to make it happen, which is no small concession from someone who spent most of his career at middleweight.
“Fighting in Lincoln was more a bucket list thing for me,” Smith said. “That wasn’t necessarily the thing that would have been the best for the division or for moving up the ladder, but it was something I wanted to do. It’s been six years since they’ve been in Nebraska, who knows when they’re coming back again?”
Right after Smith began his campaign for a hometown fight, though, Volkan Oezdemir had to pull out of his scheduled fight with “Shogun” at UFC Hamburg due to legal issues, and that opened the door to Smith for a big name bout.
“They called and said ‘Shogun’ and that was all I needed to hear,” said Smith. “You get a chance to fight a legend and you take it. I was already in shape because I was getting ready to take a fight in Lincoln, so no issues with the short notice.”
And with that comes an opportunity to really stand out in a UFC division that may be most in need of fresh faces. With Cormier’s time divided for now between two weight classes and longtime former champ Jon Jones on the sidelines due to problems of his own making, there’s Alexander Gustafsson, Glover Teixeira, Oezdemir, Rua, and not a lot else.
An impressive finish over Rua would give Smith back-to-back wins over former UFC light heavyweight champions with big names in the sport.
“The division needs new blood, needs new names and new faces,” Smith said. “I think ultimately, DC is probably going to decide he doesn’t want to go through the weight cut anymore, and I think, no offense to Volkan but I think Alex is going to beat him. If I beat Shogun right after beating Rashad, I think I’m going to put myself right in the middle of the conversation.”
One thing Smith won’t do is get starry-eyed over fighting Rua, a competitor a whole generation of fighters grew up admiring. Smith fully appreciates what “Shogun” has brought to the sport as much as anyone, but his ruthless knockout of Evans shows he knows when to turn off the admiration aspect.
“Look at what happened when Pat Barry fought Mirko Cro Cop,” Smith said of a legendary UFC 115 bout in which Barry got a little too chummy with his idol and got choked out for his trouble. “I can tell you 100 percent that I respect Shogun the way Pat did Cro Cop, but I can also tell you 100 percent I know how to shut that down. After the fight, yeah, it will be great to say I had the honor of competing against Shogun, but until then, Shogun is the guy who is in the way of what I want.”
This article first appeared at MMA Fighting – All Posts
