Anthony Smith respects Daniel Cormier. Smith has spent plenty of time alongside Cormier. He simply disagrees with him on their perhaps most highly viewed shared experience.
Cormier and Smith have both faced light heavyweight champion Jon Jones inside the UFC Octagon, and both have come up short against the dominating 205-pounder. But while it seems Cormier has left Jones in the rearview of his fighting career, Smith wants nothing more than a chance at redemption.
“I like Daniel, I’ve worked with Daniel — I disagree with Daniel. I hear him talk about Jon Jones like that all the time,” Smith said, speaking on SiriusXM Fight Nation (transcribed by BodylockMMA). “I don’t see that. I didn’t feel like that when I was in there with Jon Jones. Obviously I had my own issues and I think later on, I’ll write a book and tell the entire story about that, but I don’t feel like that. I didn’t feel like I was in there with a dude who was unbeatable.
🔊 Daniel Cormier thinks only a heavyweight can beat Jon Jones, what does @lionheartasmith think? He opened up to @RJcliffordMMA on SiriusXM Fight Nation 👊🎙️👊🎙️👊🎙️ pic.twitter.com/f344PYqfDw
— MMA on SiriusXM (@MMAonSiriusXM) January 29, 2020
“And when I hear DC talk sometimes, I get the feeling as if he’s talking about someone who’s unbeatable. Especially a man who was winning the second fight and just got clipped and put down. I think all judges had DC up, he was winning every minute of every round up till the point that he got kicked. I always feel really uncomfortable when I hear DC talk like that. One, because I don’t see that when I’ve seen him fight [Jones] the second time. And I didn’t feel like that when I was in there with Jon Jones.”
Smith’s comments came after Cormier shared his opinion that we’re unlikely to see Jones defeated until he moves to heavyweight and faces much bigger men. In Smith’s eyes, that’s simply just a route to defeat Jones is yet to face — but not the only route available.
“Would some more size absolutely help? For sure,” Smith said. “If I was bigger, a couple inches taller and had a few more inches of reach on me, absolutely it’s easier to do.
“Also, if you’re a heavyweight and you’re a big power striker, maybe you can get away with putting Jon Jones out without having to be better than him for an entire fight. That’s how I look at it.”
