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Anthony
Smith never seemed further removed from his days as a top light
heavyweight contender than he did at
UFC Fight Night 175.
The former title challenger was largely overwhelmed by Aleksandar
Rakic in Saturday’s three-round headliner at the UFC Apex in
Las Vegas en route to losing a clear-cut unanimous decision. Rakic
battered “Lionheart” with low kicks, and when Smith attempted to
initiate grappling exchanges, the Austrian stifled his opponent
from top position while staying busy with ground-and-pound. The end
result was a bout in which Smith, while he didn’t feel out of his
depth, was rarely able to threaten a more powerful opponent.
“The first round I stayed in kicking range at the beginning, which
is obviously stupid now. He beat up my lead leg. Then we got in our
clinch and grappling exchanges, which I felt OK in,” Smith said on
the ESPN+ post-fight show. “He was so strong; he’s so big. So I
just ended up in some bad spots. It wasn’t really even bad spots,
he was just so tight on top. I couldn’t make any space. I guess my
biggest takeaway was that he was so big and so strong.”
Rakic’s leg kicks were especially prevalent in Round 1, when he
sent Smith tumbling to the canvas and momentarily appeared to be on
the verge of a finish when he began unloading with punches to the
body from above after dropping his foe. Smith acknowledged that the
kicks were a factor, but says he recovered relatively quickly. It
was simply the size and strength of Rakic that proved to be too
much to overcome.
“In the first round it definitely affected me. He caught me with
the last one that made me stumble. I was kicking at the same time,
so all my weight was on that leg and it kind of put me to the
ground,” Smith said. “Right away I feel like I recovered quick, I
got to the clinch positions. I did everything I wanted to do in
those positions, I just wasn’t able to finish some of them.
“I got to the clinch aginst the cage, I was able to get to his
legs. It was just when I turned to return him to the mat, I don’t
know, he was so strong and I couldn’t get him bent over at the
waist to get his weight on his hands. That’s just what I keep going
back to: I just felt like we’re in two different weight
classes.”
Smith began his UFC tenure as a middleweight, but it wasn’t until
he moved up to 205 pounds that he experienced his greatest success,
earning a title shot after finishes of Rashad
Evans, Mauricio Rua
and Volkan
Oezdemir. The 32-year-old wasn’t especially competitive against
then champion Jon Jones,
however, and back-to-back lopsided defeats against Rakic and
Glover
Teixeira in 2020 have him wondering if there’s a new direction
he should take.
“I’ve never been one of the guys that is out here pining and
calling for more weight classes, but in my last couple fights it’s
where my brain goes. I’m just too big for 185,” he said. “You start
getting to these bigger, stronger, taller, longer guys — they’re
just so strong.
“He [Rakic] wasn’t passing my guard. He wasn’t putting me in danger
on the ground,” Smith continued. “I just couldn’t get up and I
couldn’t get his hands apart. I couldn’t get his head off my chest
to make any space to do anything. He wasn’t really offensive. I
even was releasing posture on his head to hope he would posture up
to try to punch so I could at least make some space to get up. He
fought a great game plan. He did everything he had to do to win. He
did a great job.”
No new weight classes appear to be on the horizon in the UFC, so
Smith is left to contemplate whether to adopt the extreme changes
necessary to return to 185 pounds or to try and get bigger and
stronger to better combat the Aleksandar Rakics of the world. In
the aftermath of a disappointing defeat, neither seems to be an
obvious move.
“I think I’ve got some big decisions to make in my career and
figure out where we go from here,” he said. “It’s super frustrating
to lose to a guy that you feel like you can beat. Once I got inside
of the kicking range, I didn’t feel like he was outboxing me.
Second round on as far as striking went, I felt fine once I
adjusted the range. I got to the clinch like I wanted to. I got to
his body. I wasn’t able to finish a lot of those spots.
“185 is still really tough. It’s a total lifestyle change and it’s
year round. It’s not one of those things where I can just get into
camp and change my diet and cut down. It’s a complete lifestyle
change. I guess that’s one of the options. I guess the other option
is to take some time off and get bigger. I don’t know. I’ve got
some things to decide on.”
