UFC light heavyweight Anthony Smith was nonplussed at the fiery response he received from fellow 205-pounder, former middleweight champion Alex Pereira.
Smith, like many other light heavyweights, dismissed Pereira, which “Poatan” took personally. Appearing on SiriusXM’s MMA Today, Anthony Smith shared his reaction to Pereira calling him “washed up.”
Anthony Smith Fires Back At Alex Pereira Over UFC Criticism
“So I’ll be honest, I texted [Pereira’s coach] Glover [Teixeira] yesterday and said, ‘What in the f*** is this?’ Because I’m trying to figure out which direction I’m supposed to go here. Like, did he take something out of context? Like, is he reading headlines? Or did he actually listen to what I said?
Because what I said was, essentially, is he’s the same size as everyone else. You think if I said Islam is the same size as every other lightweight, he’s going to come at me all pissed off about it? No.
All my whole point was is that he moved up to 205, so he’s not going to enjoy the same size advantage that he did at 185. That’s it. I don’t think that — is that crazy? Am I wrong?
Because the whole question was, ‘You’re a guy that moved up from 185 to 205, what are some of the things that you experienced that Alex may be experiencing, and what’d you see [as] the differences?’ I said, ‘The difference is he’s not the largest guy in that division. That he went from being the largest middleweight on planet Earth, to a normal size 205er.’
And then I went on to say, what makes him special is how… I used the word special, that he’s a special talent when it comes to being a striker and that the division is more interesting with him in it.”
Smith continued, pointing out that he’s far from interested in making amends. “I said a bunch of nice s*** about you and you’re going to talk s***? I don’t think so.
That’s not how this works. That’s not how this works. And then we’re just going to shake hands when we see each other because you’re doing this media thing, because you’re looking for a rival?
If you want a f****** rival, you got one right here. I didn’t do s*** to you. I’ve been nothing but complimentary of him and his whole team. I like his coaches. I love Glover to death, and a lot of his training partners. Like, I don’t know what I did to that guy.”
Is this building up to a clash between Anthony Smith and Alex Pereira?
