Recently, Anthony Smith was a guest on “Submission Radio” to discuss his upcoming bout with Volkan Oezdemir at UFC Fight Night 138.
The two will headline the card from the Moncton Events Centre in Moncton, New Brunswick on October 27.
Below is a transcript of the conversation:
If it’s different fighting Volkan Oezdemir, who isn’t a legend like Rashad Evans or Shogun
“Nah, not really. Honestly, I think that… I know people are gonna think I’m crazy for saying this, but I think that Shogun probably would have beaten Volkan, to be honest with you. Just the way their styles match up with each other. Volkan’s a guy that doesn’t mind taking a step back, and obviously Shogun is a guy that’s going to make sure that he does that.”
On being too old for trash talk and being happy Volkan wasn’t an asshole
“It was cool that he wasn’t an asshole or anything. I know he went through that shit talking with DC a little bit, and to be honest with you, I’m just getting too old for that shit. I don’t want to do it anymore. So, it’s cool to just do my job, you know? And I know a lot of guys in this sport right now are doing the trash talking thing and drawing attention to them like that, I’m just a regular dude and I just figure, I think that I could draw a whole lot more people to me just by doing what I’m doing in the octagon. I think I have a pretty unique ability to make every single fight that I’m in exciting, and it’s not something that I have to think about, that’s just naturally who I am. Just deep down in my soul, that’s just the way that I want to fight. And I can’t (change it). I’ve tried to change it and I just can’t. So, I don’t think that I have to do anything extra other than go in there and fight.”
On Volkan joking that Anthony is stealing his “No Time” gimmick, and if Anthony expects this fight to be over quickly considering his and Volkan’s history of quick finishes
“No, I don’t imagine it’s gonna go to a decision at all. And I kind of did feel bad for him for his joke as well. I think he’s kind of in the same position as a lot of those media guys (who aren’t aware of my history). Like, if you really go back, go look at my record. I mean, I’ve probably got over 20 first-round finishes. So, he’s got this “no time” gimmick but I’m the original “no time”. I mean, if that’s the way you want to look at it. I mean, I’ve got more first-round finishes than he’s got fights total. So, I don’t imagine it’s going to go to a decision. I’ve seen a couple of the highlights of the DC fight, I think it will be similar to that. I don’t think he likes pressure that much, and like I said, I don’t know how to fight any other way, it’s just go forward and punch people in the face. It’s kind of what DC did to him kind of from the little bit that I’ve seen of him. I think that Volkan has a bright future ahead of him. I think people like to compare us as far as our rise in the division and how it happened so quickly, but I think I’m a lot more prepared for it than he is. I think that he got to the DC fight a little bit quickly and kind of ended up in deeper water than he expected, and I don’t think that he had the experience to mentally deal with some of the problems that DC brings to the table. And I don’t think it’s a physical thing, I think that’s a mental thing. And I’ve think I’ve been through enough bad situations and I’ve been in enough tough spots, that mentally I’m just gonna be superior to him in there. There’s nothing that he’s gonna throw at me that I haven’t seen before, and I’m not necessarily a hundred percent sure that he can say the same thing.”
On challenging DC to do the right thing for the division
“I think a finish over Oezdemir puts me in line for a title shot. And to be honest with you, I don’t care who it is. I’m not here to challenge DC to a fight. The only thing I challenge DC to do is do the right thing. I think that DC has had a really great career, I think that he’s been a great champion, I think that he’s a stand-up guy for the most part. I think that the UFC and the game as a whole has been good to him, and I expect that and I challenge him to return that back to the game and either sign on the line and put up your title or get out of my way and don’t hold up my journey. Because no one held up his. So that’s what I challenge DC to. I don’t really care who has the title. I don’t care if it’s vacant and I don’t care if I have to pick it up off the ground because he vacates it or if I have to take it off his waste. It literally doesn’t matter to me. I don’t want to fight DC. I’m not chasing DC. I’m chasing the title. And whether I have to fight Gustafsson for the vacant title or I gotta fight DC for it, I promise you it makes no difference to me. I don’t care. The person doesn’t matter.”
On Lesnar getting the title shot with DC after his PED issues in the past
“If Brock Lesnar hadn’t failed his last drug test I wouldn’t have a whole lot of room to stand and say anything, but I don’t think that that’s fair. If that was my division that that was happening in, I’d be pissed. But you know, I’m kind of in a biased position when it comes to the Brock Lesnar thing because Stipe’s my dude, you know? I think Stipe deserves a rematch. I think that he’s the greatest heavyweight champ we’ve ever had. I think that he carried that division on his back for a long time and I think that Stipe had a big part in making that division as exciting as it was and brining the heavyweights back to something that people wanted to watch. Because for a long time no one gave a shit about the heavyweights. So, I think he raised the bar. And once you raise the bar, people try to match it and it brings everybody’s level up. So, with that said, I think that Stipe deserves the rematch, but I don’t blame Daniel for wanting the Brock Lesnar fight.”
“Daniel deserves that. He deserves that big paycheck, that big moment, and that’s hard to argue with, you know, I think that he probably does. At the same time, kind of at what cost? What cost does that come to the integrity of the sport and what’s going on with Stipe.”
Prediction for how he beats Volkan
“I think that it’s another brutal finish. I really do. I think that our styles match up perfectly for me. Volkan’s not shooting takedowns, it’s just not happening. So even if he watches this and decides, ‘alright, I’m gonna take him down because he’s not gonna be expecting it,’ it doesn’t matter because Volkan doesn’t have it in him. Not that he’s not able to, but just his style and his mentality. Volkan’s not shooting any takedowns. So, with the threat of a takedown completely off the table, I don’t think that there’s anyone at 205 that’s gonna win a striking battle with me.”
“I think the first round is gonna probably be a feeling out process. We’re two guys that are swinging hammers, I don’t think either one of us are gonna dive right in right away. I imagine there’s gonna be a feeling out process and we’re gonna be checking each other’s timing and speed and see what everything looks like, and I think that round two I think that we really start letting them fly.”