Anthony Smith knows Ryan Spann is a very dangerous opponent.
In the main event of UFC Vegas 37 on September 18 at the UFC Apex, Smith is looking to continue his winning streak when he battles Spann. The Fortis MMA product in Spann is coming off a KO victory over Misha Cirkunov and has vicious KO power.
Although Spann is the one fighting up in the rankings, Anthony Smith says Spann is one of the most dangerous fighters he has faced in a while.
“He’s one of the more dangerous guys that I’ve faced in a long time,” Smith said on MMAFighting’s MMA Hour. “He’s super powerful. He’s athletic. He’s really big, he moves well. He has a lot of positive things to his game. I respect his abilities, for sure. I respect his attributes. I respect his skills. I just don’t — I guess I don’t talk about him. Like, I don’t really know him. I have gotten a vibe that he doesn’t like me. We’ve been in the same place before, we’ve been in situations where we’re very close to each other, and I just get this vibe that he just doesn’t like me.
“Which is, you don’t have to like everybody, but sometimes I do wonder — I feel like I’m kind of a hard guy to dislike, so I don’t know what that’s about, but honestly I don’t give a sh*t either way,” Smith continued. “Some of that stuff, that’s his own insecurities. You know what I mean? He’s the one who kept talking about, ‘This is a main event and I’m not nervous.’ Well, you’re the one who keeps talking about it. This is just everyday sh*t for me. You’re the one who keeps bringing it up.”
Anthony Smith is coming off a TKO victory over Jimmy Crute in April. Prior to that, he submitted Devin Clark to get back into the win column after losing to Aleksandar Rakic and Glover Teixeira.