Anthony Smith says 'not a chance' Alex Pereira actually wants proposed grappling match: 'I would smoke him'

21/09/2023 15:00

Anthony Smith doubts Alex Pereira is serious about his grappling match challenge, but he also won't turn down a chance to settle the beef with the former UFC champion.

"I mean, I would [do it]. But do you think he would? Not a chance, not a chance," Smith said Wednesday on The MMA Hour, referencing Pereira's recent social media post seemingly challenging Smith to a match at a future UFC Fight Pass Invitational event.

"I think it's just him taking jabs. You know how it is in this media world, it doesn't have to be true; you just have to convince people that it's true, or that you want it to be true."

"I would grapple him in my front yard right now," Smith added. "It doesn't matter. I would smoke him in a grappling match. But isn't he supposed to — I don't know why he's not talking trash to Jiri [Prochazka]. Like, that's the guy. I understand trying to drum up some business and drum up some some intrigue into what you're doing and things in the division, but like, someone needs to be in his ear saying, 'If you're going to be talking all this s***, you need to do it to the guy that you could be fighting for the title.'"

Smith and Pereira have traded shots off and on for the past month. Their issue stems from a media day interview by Smith ahead of his recent victory over Ryan Spann at UFC Singapore. A former middleweight himself who found success after moving up to 205 pounds, Smith was asked about Pereira's transition to light heavyweight, and while Smith was complimentary of Pereira's divisional debut against Jan Blachowicz, he also stated that the former middleweight champ wasn't the same "large, scary monster" at 205 pounds because his 6-foot-4 frame was "fairly normal" for an elite light heavyweight.

Pereira caught wind of the comments and fired back with a scathing retort in which he dismissed the American as a washed-up veteran "who never amounted to anything."

Nearly a month later, Smith still isn't quite sure why Pereira was so mad.

"I don't know, man. I don't get it, I don't get it," Smith said. "If you want my honest opinion, I think that the Alex Pereira that we see now, I think is a really good character in the MMA space when he has an opponent. And I don't mean just in the octagon, I think in the media. I think he's having fun with it, I think he likes having someone to jab at and respond and go back-and-forth with. I don't actually think he probably, unless there was a misstep in the translation, I don't think he actually believes that I was out there talking trash about him.

"I think something got missed in the translation, because I did say he's just a regular guy in the division, but like, I was talking about his size. Like, he's an average guy at the top of the division as far as his size. He didn't look that much larger than Jan Blachowicz, and Johnny Walker is 240 [pounds], 250. Aleksandar Rakic is 250. Jiri Prochazka is pretty big. Jamahal Hill is 240, 250. He doesn't stand out size-wise amongst the 205ers. That was the part of it I think that he got angry about, and I went on to say how special he was as far as being a kickboxer and his striking, and I don't know, he just got angry."

In the meantime, both Smith and Pereira have their own UFC futures to worry about.

Following his win over Spann, Smith said he's eyeing a return soon. He expressed interest in meeting Blachowicz's challenge after the Polish contender named him as a potential next opponent in a recent interview. Pereira, meanwhile, is expected to face Jiri Prochazka for the vacant UFC light heavyweight title sometime in the fourth quarter of 2023.

Despite their beef, Smith likes Pereira's chances of becoming a two-division UFC champ.

"I'm leaning Alex," Smith said.

"Jiri's incredible, I like everything about that guy. Actually, Aleksandar Rakic had a lot to say about Jiri [on my radio show], which I thought was kind of, I don't know, they have some weird kind of beef because, location-wise, they're very close to each other, and he doesn't believe this whole samurai, live the way of the spirit thing. He was like, 'I've heard stories of him being in clubs and pubs and getting in street fights, and like a month later, he was just like, samurai weird mentality.' So that was actually some tidbits I'd never heard before.

"But anyways, Jiri's proven to be hittable, very hittable," Smith continued. "And I just don't know that you can be as hittable as he is at times and get out of there with a win with Alex Pereira, because he's just, he gets hit off-balance a lot. That's more of the bigger issue, at least in my opinion, because he is so free and flowy and kind of creative, that he ends up in funky ass positions, taking punches. And just don't know that Alex Pereira is probably the guy — he could get away with that maybe with a guy like me, who's not the most powerful puncher in the division. But Alex is."