Anthony
Smith may have handed Jimmy Crute
his second Ultimate Fighting Championship defeat on Saturday night
at UFC
261, but he still holds the 25-year-old Australian light
heavyweight prospect in high regard.
“I wish I was half as good as him at his age,” Smith said. “He’s
night and day better than I am at that point, or better than I was
at that age, at that point in his career. I don’t just don’t want
him to get his head down, don’t hang your head, keep your head up
high, he’s a warrior. Robert
Whittaker is not going to be around forever, so someone is
going to have to carry that torch for Australia, and I think he’s
that guy.”
Smith ended Crute’s night when a perfectly-placed leg kick left
“The Brute” unable to continue after the opening stanza. As Crute
struggled to stand before Round 2, the bout was waved off.
Even though he was struggling to find his footing between rounds,
it initially appeared as though Crute would come out for the second
round. When Smith initially hurt him with the leg kick late in
Round 1, the Dana White’s Contender Series alum was able to survive
until the horn by landing a pair of takedowns.
“I knew that there was a low chance that he was coming out for the
second round, but then he got up and he was wanting to fight,”
Smith said. “So I was kicking myself in the ass because I didn’t
really listen to the first part of what Marc [Montoya] said because
I was like, ‘No way is he getting off that stool.’
“And then he got off and I was like ‘Oh s—t, he might actually come
out.’ Credit to that guy’s fighting spirit, hell of a tough kid,
he’s going to be great someday.”
As for Smith himself, he was pleased to earn his second consecutive
UFC triumph, but the former light heavyweight title challenger
still sees plenty of room for improvement. Ironically, it was Crute
who landed the majority of the leg kicks in Round 1 before Smith
connected with the decisive blow.
“This is a performance I needed, but I still didn’t do everything
right,” he said. “My goal was to get in and get out without taking
a lot of leg kicks. I still took a lot of leg kicks on my way out.
I did a better job of handling them on my way in but it just means
we still have things to work on. It felt good to keep landing that
jab over and over. To be honest, I was like man, I think he’s
playing possum like he’s going to come over the top of one of
those, but I can’t complain.”