Anthony Smith isn’t too sold on the hype of Magomed Ankalaev.
‘Lionheart’ would get a chance to see what Ankalaev was all about, when he faced him at UFC 277. Unfortunately for Smith, the hands-on experience wouldn’t be a good one. He’d suffer an ankle injury before taking a TKO loss to Ankalaev in round 2.
Smith Doesn’t See Ankalaev As Some Sort Of ‘Boogeyman’
While he did get finished midway into the matchup, Smith doesn’t think Ankalaev is as good as everybody says he is… which is a reiteration of what he stated pre-fight.
“I don’t want to take anything from him. At the end of the day, his body held up longer than mine did, but it’s not like he did anything to me that broke my ankle. I kinda did it to myself,” Smith said on the Believe You Me Podcast.
“He’s good, but he’s not— that fight didn’t prove anything I said before, wrong. He’s not that f*cking guy, like I said he wasn’t. He’s not the boogeyman in the division. All he needed was someone who wasn’t afraid of him and is going to say, ‘this is my f*cking space and I’m taking it.'”
‘He’s Going To Have A Tough Time’
Don’t get it twisted, Anthony Smith still has respect for Magomed Ankalaev. However, he believes his former foe will have a hard time hanging with the light heavyweight divisions’ best.
“To be fair, I have a lot of respect for the guy, but I feel like he’s going to have a tough time with some of those guys at the top. Gonna have a tough time.”
https://youtu.be/1YHhQ5qMAu0
