Daniel Cormier TVDaniel Cormier TV - Anthony Smith DOUBLES DOWN on Alex Pereira criticism
Anthony Smith joins Daniel Cormier in his newest edition of the DC Check-In, and he had plenty to say on the king of light heavyweight division, Alex Pereira. Plus, why Smith thinks he’s one fight away from a shot at the title. Smith admits that he’s still embarrassed after getting knocked out in his last fight. And don’t miss what the star thinks of Jose Aldo’s return to the UFC! #Volume #Herd
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Guys, I'm checking in with the boy Anthony Smith, Anthony Spis, Anthony Smid fights Detour Patrio this weekend at UFC three oh one. My guy, thank you for checking in with me. Yeah, how you doing out here in Brazil? When did you get here this morning? So you just traveled in?
I just got.
Here, No acclamation, no nothing, man, that's that's made up ship you think, So, yeah, that is not true. That's made up.
Maybe here because it's not a seat like like below sea level or above sea level. But I saw Kean, Alaska as get tired against Reese over dude.
Yeah, but that's that's altitude. There's an altitude here. There's no night trained altitude. Yes, so yeah, I guess you. I guess you're And I've spent I got fifty five fights. I've spent over a year of my life in fight week. Yeah, so I'm just chilling.
And you still love this shit.
I love the fight for sure. I love love my camp, not all the time, this one. I had a lot of fun. I had a lot of fun this training camp. I think. I think it's my mindset change a little bit after the Khalil fight. So I had a lot of fun this training camp.
You don't going back to that fight?
When it when it? When when a fight ends like that? Like what is because I've been knocked out? Right, I've been knocked out once and you go home and I think the first thought is embarrassment a little bit. Yeah, how long did it take to get over that? Because for me, it took a while. I was going for seven months.
It's still there. It's really yeah, it's embarrassing. I've never had that happen to me ever, and I'm just mad at myself for the the decision making, you know, like I just can't say no. I don't know why I didn't train one time from the really yeah, because when I fought Ryan Span in August, YEP, I told everyone after that, I'm taking a break. I need a break, I need to hang with my kids. I just need to be a dad and just chill. And then this fight pops up. I hadn't trained one time from there to there.
And I was like, fuck it, let's do it. How long how long before you got to fight? Like ten days? Geez? So then you're just like rushing just way cut. Yeah yeah, I.
Was two thirds to thirty seven something like that when I stepped on the scale when they called them.
So there must be a massive difference in that and in the fielding you have this week actually having the ability to train it.
Yeah, I feel really good.
And so that's why I wasn't willing to make any kind of decisions on my career following the Clio fight, because I knew I.
Wasn't ready for the cleiar fight.
Could I clip him and maybe get a takedown and dominate the graph? Like maybe, but I knew what the positive side of that was. I if I was able to get a win like that, I just slid right into a title shot, maybe right after Jamal and whatever they worked out their deal.
But now I'm back a little bit now. So so.
You when we lose in that way, especially people that have been on top of the game for a long time, it gives those little It gives the kids a little bit of pepponie step. They start calling your name. Yeah, this dude, this dude called you out. You think this dude called you off because he saw that and was like, wait a minute, if can do that, I can beat him one hundred percent.
God, that's the only reason. That's the only reason you think that kid would call me out after I beat Gus.
Not a chance or right, not a chance, not a chance.
So like Bogden did it right before then too, Like not for nothing.
Ryan Spam was walking him walking him my Twins fight last week.
I was like, damn that kids stuff. But like he struggled with Ryan Span pretty bad there for a minute. And Ryan Span does with Ryan span does and kind of goes away a little bit, but he's got all the talent in the world. And I walked right through that dude the first time.
So I don't think that.
I think that they look at me as a broken, wounded lion, and that's not the case.
That's not the case, but.
That kind of that fire under didn't and that when that kid called you want to fight Anthony.
He wasn't in the locker room yet. And I told McK maynard, if he's ranked on Tuesday, I'll go to Brazil. And he ain't rank because Bogden got in the rankings and kicked him out. He's ranked on Tuesday.
Is he good? Is he as good as as as people are making them out to be?
When you break him down, You're a guy that does this job like me, right, So when you're breaking him down, I get it when you're when we're fighting someone, we tend to look for their weakness as a point to respecting what they actually can do. Is he as good as people have made this kid out to be?
He is good, He's he's not as good.
I guess pulling the curtain back a little bit like I've worked in the event that he last fought on. So I broke all of his fights down and broke his game down, not even imagining that I was going to fight.
That is that's the best because I didn't put myself in the right way.
You're not saying at.
This, he's bad at this, right, So when I broke him down. Our jo our job is to promote all these guys and promote these events and build them up and essentially make them out to be killers. And sometimes when you watching the tape, you don't see the killer. So you got to find it, like you got to dig deep. He was the guy who had an incredible skill set. He's crazy explosive, but I didn't see a lot of depth to his game. I've seen a guy who's doing exactly what he should do to the people that he's fighting. Like when you're big and explosive and powerful, you can get guys at the bottom to kind of retract a little bit. They don't like the aggressiveness and like the physicality of it. Guys at the top don't give a shit. You gotta have you gotta have more depth to your game than that. Like what happens when you're big and explosive and I'm still walking forward like we haven't seen anybody do that to him yet. I like Tyson Pedro as a person. He fought like a scared little bitch in there the whole time, Like he didn't engage, he was circling, And I get it.
The power.
If you're not used to seeing it all the time, it's different, especially like a shorter stock your guy like that. It's different in like the speed change is different when he when he really goes. But I've seen that a billion times, and so I think he is good. I think he's going to be around a long time. I don't think he's as good as he's being made out to me.
But not today, you don't think, well the kid, like you said, very explosive. He's really walked through dudes. But I think every fighter's been a massive favorite. And when you're a favorite, you're supposed to go get the job done. And if you have that belief of the undefeated fighter that.
He has no reason, he has no reason to not believe it, like no one's given him the reason to doubt anything that he does, that's my job is to go out there and really take it from him right away and make him know immediately, like this is different than anybody else you've ever fought.
You know, when I remember there was a time that we struggled a little bit, and I started thinking to myself, as we're talking about retirement, because that's what we do right from the outside, the guys that are talking about retirement, I'm like, man, I didn't want to.
I didn't say it straight out because I didn't know if I believed it or not.
Like it felt like the fight wasn't as strong with you, and then all of a sudden it was just back.
What changed? Like maybe it just never was going, but it on the outside it seemed like he doesn't.
Necessarily want to do this as much as he used to, because Anthony Smith looks different to me.
They did when he was on his run.
But then all of a sudden, even when you were having tough fights and tough moments, you kept fighting, and it seemed like all that fight that defined you before was back.
So what changed?
And I think you'll understand this, Like when you get to a spot when you're doing so many other things, like fighting opens up a door for some people and other people they fight and then they're done fighting, and then they if they didn't make enough money or get enough opportunities, then they have to go get regular job and do regular stuff. Right for some of us, it opens up other doors. And then so you find yourself doing all these other things. And I think that I let it. I think I got spread tooth in a little bit. And then personally, like my marriage is fine, my kids are good, but like personally inside I think that I juggle so much, and I wear so many different hats and I got a lot on my shoulders that I think it just becomes so exhausting. Like I was so tired, like not a fighting, I was just so tired emotionally and mentally, and I just wasn't managing my I've been really outspoken about my mental health. Not that I'm a crazy person or anything, but I grew up with a lot of trauma. I got a lot of bullshit going on. Some of it was around the time my mom died, so I remember our conversations. I was a mess, you know, And but like fighting was the one thing I could control. So when I shouldn't have been fighting, that was all I wanted to do was just dive in there. And then when I got in there, I just wasn't the same person. And then as I started to manage that stuff and just deal with the bs in my own head, and then we start talking, people start talking about retirement, and I just couldn't imagine, like, I'm not ready to retire, Like, I still really love this game. Sometimes I hate the bullshit around it, but I love the fighting, I love the training, I love the.
Camaraderie, and I don't know what to do without it. So and I'm still competitive.
I'm still in there with the young guys in the gym and still fighting it out and getting the better of those rounds and more times than not. So I think that I just had to get my own, my own head right before I could get back line. Yeah, before I could be that person again.
Yeah, it seemed like it seemed where.
And I know that's a hard conversation with people around you start talking about retirement, especially if it's not in your heart, because the only way you can walk away is when it's in your heart.
To walk away.
Like Josie all those backs weekend, right, and it seemed like it was in his heart.
To walk away. It seemed right, It seemed right.
It also seemed honestly, as I told him this too earlier. I could at your Hall of Fames beach, it felt like you were complete and you were done with it.
But and I kind of got scared. I wanted to ask him this question, but I didn't do it.
Bro. You want to ask Bro?
I wanted to ask him, like I fucking busted out. I'm so bad about it, Oh to ask him? So dude, so you saw it. Now, you don't have to sit six months. That's not a thing now, So you can just come back. You said, started talking in January.
It's April. He's back. You think that played a part of it.
I wonder, like I've seen that's a tough question to ask.
Like, how do you ask him?
I want to that's a tough.
One because he wouldn't have been able to fight if.
Uh no, he wouldn't know, he wouldn't.
I mean, god, I should have asked him.
You know what.
I think the Cowboy probably feels a little bit now too, like the cowboys out of the pool.
He looks so healthy and so happy. Yeah, cowboy to cowboy to you.
Steroids man, he to he he said he do that, and he got he got, he got his hair back.
He cowboys the man, he's he looks healthy, but he heard himself riding the bully. I've seen that like towards Bice, he heard himself riding the bully.
That's the problem, right, you start doing all this stuff, you feel like Zoomerman again.
You can't be that, but.
You know the fights back and when you look at the light heavyweight division two, I feel me.
Being a guy that was in the weight class.
It's a good time to be in this division because you're very You're only a couple fights away from being right back where you need to be. Because outside of Alex right there's a whole bunch of people that are essentially one fight away from fighting for the championship.
You feel that, yeah, but I'm also it kind of goes into this mindset change. Do you think when you were like chasing titles and wrestling and stuff like that, like that it blinded you and became a negative.
Well, it's that times you become so laser full. Well, it's become so laser focused. That's why like relationships and stuff suffer. For me, nothing really was good for me outside of my competitive career because I was so intent and focus and selfish because you have to be and do you. And the problem is, like I think most have to be. And if you don't want to be selfish like that, then you can keep everything around you happy, right, But when you're chasing championships like one or the other.
It is the most selfish life ever.
Yeah, well I think it's I think it's blinded me and hurt me in getting there because I think I like, every time I'm getting ready to fight, like even now, I wouldn't typically be worried so much about veto Petrain, I'm like, all right, I gotta beat him, and I gotta fight this guy, and then this guy's gonna beat this guy and then and then maybe I can fight him and I'll get in and then if I lose, and it's like, well, even after clear fight, I didn't even think about the knockout or the loss, like the actual physical loss. I immediately thought, fuck, how many times? How many fights are going to take to get back now? It was like the first thought it was immediately about the title.
Because that title fight is like nothing else, right, is.
Nothing else, especially when you get one and it doesn't go the way you want it to go, like and you feel like you didn't give your Like if I think if I'd have gone in and fought John and felt like that was the best version of myself or that was the best I had, that was all I had to give.
I think I could have. I think I could have lived with it.
You could have won you still, I know, but I wouldn't be in the position I'm in though, You're right, Yeah, you would maybe look at all Joe, Yeah, well, yeah, you're right, you're.
I love al Jael r like the whole world. Though my boy made some money, don't hold that belt. He defitted whole bunch of times. That's true. That's true, But I understand.
I understand.
Hey, before I let you go, you said something about Alec Ferreira a couple of weeks ago about.
His I said the same shit you said, But I know I said the same shit you said.
But it was not an insult, but it was like kind of an insult.
Or it was spun like fun for sure, What did you mean? What's part?
Just the whole thing was like, well, he's got one thing he does.
It's the best thing in the world.
It is, and that's the thing, Like he is a fantastic striker, and he has molded that into his MMA game so beautifully. But like, let's not pretend like this dude is a fire grappler. He's just not.
What would you do to Alex Preyra, Go ahead, he'd beat me, bro, Shut the fuck I lose you. That's what you're saying.
Yeah, if that camera was off, what was you?
Actually? I don't do that. But like, here's the deal.
I'm not even saying, like when I talk about him, I'm not talking like here's People can't separate me from being an analyst and a fighter. I'm analyzing his game from just x'es and o's and what I see in there. I don't understand how he keeps winning, and that's okay, that's okay. I'm not saying he's that and more impressive exactly. And that was what I was doing. I was building him up, saying, listen, he's not a great wrestler. He's good enough on the fence for sure, but if he gets a guy in there, there's ripping single legs and lifting and like chaining them together.
I bet he's super strong.
I grab him all the time, and he's really really strong.
He looks like it for sure, But it's not like he's got a high level of wrestling pedigree or like a high level jiu jitsu game like Yomblehovich is a decent grappler, and that dude took him down and took his back had Yambolhow's not been at altitude and been out there longer or acclimated to it or trained at it.
What does the second third round look like like?
If he was, he was able to do it fairly easily, that entire four minutes of the first round. Like, that's not me saying I'm a fighter and I want to fight him and I'll beat him up. That's me saying, like, listen, there's holes in his game and he still finding ways to win.
That's impressive as fuck.
He has beat some really high level guys with a very limited skill set. Like he's got a hole in a box that he has to stay in and he just does a great job of staying in it.
Yeah.
I think it's impressive and he gets offended by it, but I don't really care about it.
Of course he does. I don't care about his scheme. Of course he does. Everymmediality does. Ask him about me every time, and I don't care, Like I.
Never said, he never gets mad at me when I.
That's what I'm saying. I said the same shit you said. It wasn't the same thing. That's close. I just said, you said, I don't know how this guy keeps winning well because the wrestler it was.
But then I started thinking about something and Ben Asker told me this, and this is true. There aren't many crazy high level wrestlers in the top five right now.
There's not, so it's like the right time, it's all time. Is the only guy wrestles and he doesn't have the pedigree. It's not like he's a world champion and like some of us, like he has he has on style. He's got the style for sure.
But yeah, it's an interesting thing because it's all about timing right like this, we're all of us he's got. It's a great time for Alex and he's become a massive star.
But I just think if there was a couple more wrestlers up there, he would he would be challenged for sure. He would be challenged for sure. And I think I'm a big fan, man, I really am. I love watching his game. It's striking, it's scary, like I've seen him see like what he's seen in Jamal. I watched him see it, which is so fascinating, Like every little lead hook and you know Jamal's hand would come down or he would go to throw that like he adjusted to it so quickly.
So h'im picking up? Well, that's all that time that he's been.
Kicking, right, it's so crazy.
So but this weekend is about you and Vito Petrino. You get to go out there and shut the kid up that. It's really exciting expected from that arena. When you hit there, you're gonna die.
Oh yeah, area, have your farty before twice? You like it? I no, not really, But I like Brazil.
I don't like I don't necessarily like the the fighting part of it.
I like being there, but I got to get a win here. I've never won in Brazil. Well it's a big deal.
Good time to start to get to guy man Anthony Lionheart Smid fight this week in at UFC three to zer one against Vito Petrino. Guys, he's the man tapping everything he's doing, follow him on all of his socials. Him and Bisbeing are on the podcast together now very often which is fucked up because.
I asked you first.
I asked you first, tools BIS to be my podcast guy.
I asked you, I asked Lion I asked you first, Anthony, thanks for checking. It will be man. I appreciate you guys.
Until next time, like subscribe to tell you for the tell Fred DC's got YouTube channel.
I had guys like Lionhard stopping it on me.
Peace
