Anthony Smith is a good fighter. He’s a championship caliber fighter. And he’s consistently hung around in the UFC light heavyweight rankings. But former UFC middleweight champion Alex Pereira says Smith is a “frustrated” and “bitter man” searching for a spotlight that isn’t going to come.
Following Smith’s narrow victory over Ryan Spann at UFC Singapore on Saturday, Pereira blasted Smith for supposedly talking overly critically of him.
“I always see him talking, especially about me. He talks really bad. I don’t know what he has against me,” Pereira said in a video on his personal YouTube channel.
“He doesn’t show up at the fights. I mean, he likes fighting, but he doesn’t show up. No one talks about him, so he spouts off nonsense to get some screen time.”
What are Anthony Smith’s biting comments about Alex Pereira?
It’s a bit baffling why Pereira has laid so heavily into Smith, who was asked about a potential fight with the former middleweight champ now that he has moved up to light heavyweight.
“I think that’d be a lot of fun. I like that fight. I like what Alex has brought to the division,” Smith said in the lead-up to UFC Singapore. “I have a lot of respect for him and his game.”
Pereira, however, seems to think that Smith is perhaps jealous or put off by his success. After losing the UFC middleweight belt back to Israel Adesanya, Pereira, who was a large middleweight, moved up to light heavyweight, where he defeated former 205-pound titleholder Jan Blachowicz in his UFC divisional debut.
“Here I am, a newcomer to the organization, enjoying all this success. Well, (Smith) is frustrated because I’m already making good money, going for another championship, entering another weight class. And all eyes are now on me, and he’s stuck in a rut, just the way he is. He has to keep criticizing fighters, maligning them just for a bit of recognition and to make himself look better,” Pereira explained.
“People aren’t stupid, they’ll see what’s going on. They’ll see that see that he’s just a bitter man. The only ones who speak bad about me are the Anthony Smith types, washed up vets who never amounted to anything.”
Related: Alex Caceres shares X-ray of broken arm from UFC Singapore
Anthony Smith analyzed Alex Pereira’s light heavyweight debut
When asked about Pereira’s light heavyweight debut victory over Blachowicz, he was again complimentary. But breaking down Pereira’s move to 205, Smith analysis may have been something that Pereira saw as overly critical.
“It was a pretty close fight. I thought that Alex looked pretty good and, to be fair, I thought Jan looked pretty good as well,” Smith said.
“I think that Alex had a little bit of an eye-opening moment at 205 though. He’s not the large, scary monster that he was at middleweight. He’s a fairly normal dude.
“Now, because he’s so technical and has such an incredible striking game, he’s always gonna be special. But in terms of just his size and power, he doesn’t stand out amongst all the 205ers. I don’t think that Alex Pereira is more powerful and explosive than an Aleksandar Rakic. He’s not gonna be stronger than a guy like (Magomed) Ankalaev. These dudes are big, powerful, hard-hitting dudes. Every single one of them. Because he’s such a good striker, he’s still gonna be special, but it’s not gonna be just his power and his strength that’s gonna push him over the top anymore.”
Alex Pereira seemed to take Anthony Smith’s analysis poorly
That was a fairly analytical take on Pereira’s debut. But that could also be taken with a grain of salt, considering the Smith is an active fighter and actively a commentator. So him giving his take on a potential future opponent is always going to be open to question.
Pereira, however, took it as some pretty sharp jabbing at him. He framed it as fighters like Anthony Smith and others that haven’t achieved the pinnacle of the sport – a UFC title – are the ones out to bad mouth him.
“Those who are already doing well, I don’t see them talking about me. It’s just the ones beneath me. Or those who tried and failed, bitter souls like Anthony Smith. I don’t really like doing this, coming here just to bad mouth people. Actually, I’m not bad mouthing anyone, I’m just speaking the truth,” said Pereira.
“He’s about to be just a commentator. If he likes doing that, okay, cool. But stop talking about me, dude.”
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