After consecutive stoppage victories against two former UFC champions, Anthony Smith scored his third straight win on Saturday night against Volkan Oezdemir via third-round submission. While it did impress many fans and observers, it was a so-so performance in the eyes of another ex-titleholder, Jon Jones.
Smith apparently got hold of Jones’ post-fight reactions, which he issued a response to during a post-fight media scrum.
“If he ain’t worried about it, what’s he watching for?” Smith said (via MMAjunkie). “Jon Jones should worry about Alexander Gustafsson first. I think that performance was exactly one Jon Jones would hate to see.
“You’re not going to get me out of there with a little bit of flash and some hard punches. That ain’t going to happen. But if I was Jon Jones, I would probably be a little bit more worried about Alexander Gustafsson than Anthony Smith right now.”
“Lionheart” is hoping for a Jones win over Gustafsson at UFC 232 this December, but for his own personal reasons.
“The best Jon Jones has to show up to win that fight,” Smith said. “I’d imagine with all the time off that Jon is going to train his ass off. He claims that he didn’t train at all for the first one, so the real Jon Jones shows up, I’d imagine he gets it done.
“I hope he does because that’s who I want. That’s no disrespect to Gustafsson. I want to be the man to take out Jon Jones, but he’s got to get through Gus first.”
Smith adds that while he does want to get back in there sooner than later, he also intends to take a break and have his leg x-rayed, after the beating it took from Oezdemir’s leg kicks on fight night.
“As soon as I get home on Monday they’re going to be calling for a fight, and I already said I needed a break, and they’re going to use this as an opportunity to say that I’m turning fights down. I’m telling you guys right now: I’m taking a f—ing break. I need a goddamn break.”
With the win over Oezdemir, Smith improves to a record of 31-13, with 28 wins by stoppage.