‘Bones’ vs. ‘Lionheart’
UFC light heavyweight Anthony Smith had a brief exchange with champion Jon Jones over on the UFC 232 post-show. It turns out that exchange, along with Jones’ desire to stay active in 2019, may benefit “Lionheart” as he says UFC is hoping to put that fight together. TMZ Sports caught up with Smith this week and he gave the lowdown.
“It sounds like he’s in,” Smith said (transcribed by MMAFighting). “Of course, [my manager] has already been talking to the UFC and I think that they’re working that out and seeing what that looks like as far as timelines and stuff, but I’m in.”
Smith most recently won a third-round submission over Volkan Oezemir in October and currently sits at third in UFC’s light heavyweight rankings. By that metric Smith is next in line assuming Cormier stays at heavyweight for the time being and Gustafsson will have to earn another shot. Smith certainly thinks he’s the rightful contender.
“It’s what the fans want to see,” he said. “They don’t want to see Jon go in there and beat up on Corey Anderson or whoever else. They don’t want to see that sh–. There’s nothing there.”
Thursday Notebook
-Tyron Woodley and Kamaru Usman have been having a Twitter back and forth over the next welterweight championship fight. Usman has been saying that the fight is as good as done, but Woodley disagrees and says Colby Covington is coming first. “Quit lying to these people and getting them pumped,” Woodley tweeted. “Will fight Colby and you this year.”
-Ovince Saint Preux vs. Misha Cirkunov has been announced for UFC 235 on March 2 from Las Vegas.
-Gokhan Saki and Saparbek Safarov will fight at UFC London on March 16. Volkan Oezdemir vs. Dominick Reyes in a key light heavyweight fight has been booked for the same card as well.
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