Anthony Smith isn’t happy with Daniel Cormier “dismissing” his fight with Mauricio “Shogun” Rua.
Smith is set to do battle with Rua in the main event of UFC Hamburg. Rua was initially set to meet Volkan Oezdemir, but “No Time” was pulled in favor of a bout with Alexander Gustafsson at UFC 227. Smith steps in coming off a first-round knockout win over the now-retired Rashad Evans.
Cormier recently became a two-division champion. He knocked out Stipe Miocic in the first round to capture the heavyweight gold. “DC” did admit he’d like to have a light heavyweight title defense against Rua before fighting Brock Lesnar.
This doesn’t sit well with Smith and he explained why to James Lynch (via Bloody Elbow):
“I don’t know what’s going on with Daniel Cormier. He’s been saying recently that he thinks ‘Shogun’ is next in line, completely dismissing the fact that ‘Shogun’ has to fight me. I’m not sure what DC’s problem is. He’s smarter than that. He’s an analyst. He knows that anybody can lose at any point in time. He’s also smart enough to know that I’m more than capable of walking right through ‘Shogun.’ He knows that that’s a possibility. For him to completely dismiss me, number one, it pisses me off. Number two, it also puts me in a position where, if you think ‘Shogun’ is next in line and I go in and starch ‘Shogun,’ what does that say? Me and you are together now, b-tch.”
UFC Hamburg takes place on July 22. The event will be held inside Barclaycard Arena in Hamburg, Germany. The co-main event will see light heavyweights Glover Teixeira and Corey Anderson do battle. Marcin Tybura will look to rebound from back-to-back losses to Fabricio Werdum and Derrick Lewis. To do so, he’ll need to get past Stefan Struve.
Do you think Daniel Cormier would have any interest in fighting Anthony Smith?
