UFC light heavyweight Anthony Smith’s war of words with title contender – and former middleweight champion – Alex Pereira just went up another notch. Pereira recently issued a challenge to Smith via Twitter, offering to grapple with the jiu-jitsu black belt.
Smith, appearing on The MMA Hour, believes that Pereira is joking, but on the off-chance that the former GLORY kickboxing champ is not, promised to “smoke” him.
UFC Light Heavyweight Anthony Smith Promises To “Smoke” Alex Pereira
“I mean, I would [do it]. But do you think he would? Not a chance, not a chance. I think it’s just him taking jabs. You know how it is in this media world, it doesn’t have to be true; you just have to convince people that it’s true, or that you want it to be true.”
I would grapple him in my front yard right now. It doesn’t matter. I would smoke him in a grappling match. But isn’t he supposed to — I don’t know why he’s not talking trash to Jiri [Prochazka].
Like, that’s the guy. I understand trying to drum up some business and drum up some some intrigue into what you’re doing and things in the division, but like, someone needs to be in his ear saying, ‘If you’re going to be talking all this s***, you need to do it to the guy that you could be fighting for the title.’”
The beef goes back to an insult – perceived or actual – levied by Smith when he pointed out that Alex Pereira won’t enjoy a major size advantage in the 205-pound UFC light heavyweight division compared to the 185-pound middleweight division.
“I don’t know, man. I don’t get it, I don’t get it. If you want my honest opinion, I think that the Alex Pereira that we see now, I think is a really good character in the MMA space when he has an opponent.
And I don’t mean just in the octagon, I think in the media. I think he’s having fun with it, I think he likes having someone to jab at and respond and go back-and-forth with.
I don’t actually think he probably, unless there was a misstep in the translation, I don’t think he actually believes that I was out there talking trash about him.
I think something got missed in the translation, because I did say he’s just a regular guy in the division, but like, I was talking about his size.
Like, he’s an average guy at the top of the division as far as his size. He didn’t look that much larger than Jan Blachowicz, and Johnny Walker is 240 [pounds], 250.
Aleksandar Rakic is 250. Jiri Prochazka is pretty big. Jamahal Hill is 240, 250. He doesn’t stand out size-wise amongst the 205ers.
That was the part of it I think that he got angry about, and I went on to say how special he was as far as being a kickboxer and his striking, and I don’t know, he just got angry.”
