When it comes to UFC fighters, Anthony Smith is about as cool, calm and collected as you can get.
Instead of making his name off trash talk, Smith has slowly worked his way to the light heavyweight title shot against Jon Jones by handling the more traditional task of rendering folks unconscious. So perhaps that’s why when he sees people like Colby Covington firing off abuse in every direction, Smith tends to find it grating.
🙄 its played out, Colby. Its not funny anymore. Stop throwing shade at my fight. Also, I heard you have a issue with me getting a title fight… next time I see you, we should talk about that. Or you gonna tuck your tail and hide in the corner of the gym like you did in Chicago?
— Anthony Smith (@lionheartasmith) February 14, 2019
And according to Smith, he spent time around Covington during the fight week of UFC 225, where he says he saw the real Covington — a man far different than the persona fans see.
“My manager owns a gym in Chicago, so when we were both there fighting on that card (at UFC 225), I just trained at my manager’s gym because it’s more comfortable there,” Smith said, speaking on MMAFighting’s The MMA Hour. “Typically, I would stay in the host hotel with everyone else. But it’s not anywhere close to where the hotel was — it was a significant jaunt away. So I’m there working out and Colby comes in, because he has to find somewhere as far away from UFC fighters as he can get to train, not knowing that it’s owned by one of the managers of some of the guys in the UFC. And then he gets there and he’s the most skittish person I’ve ever seen.
“He looks like a scared cat when he’s not around all the cameras — and I understand what he’s doing, I get it, but he’s put himself in a position where he can’t just be a normal person in normal places anymore because he’s pissed everybody off. So, he has to hide off in the corner of the gym the whole time and keep looking over his shoulder because he doesn’t know who wants to come in and slap him in the back of the head, and that’s how he is away from the cameras and everyone else. And that’s my only issue, is that he’s just attacking people who are not in his way. It’d be like me attacking ‘55ers. Like, what’s the point of that? I don’t understand how that puts you forward in your career anymore.”
