Anthony Smith and Jon Jones have had a more heated rivalry after their UFC 235 clash than they did before it.
Smith rebounded from his unanimous decision title loss to Jones with a fourth-round submission of Alexander Gustafsson. Afterward, Smith came up short in a wild affair with Glover Teixeira. This ultimately led to some shots being taken by Jones as Smith was a victim of a home invasion incident and didn’t take too kindly to the then champion’s comments.
Now two years removed from the Jones bout and Anthony Smith is fresh off an impressive UFC 261 victory over Jimmy Crute in April. Recently, a clip from an interview before that event resurfaced this week revealing some interesting comments from “Lionheart.”
“I’m in the same place,” Smith told The Jenna Ben Show about not believing Jones is a good person but a great fighter. “After the Glover fight, he had a lot of negative things to say and kind of had taken some shots at me for the break-in and kind of making fun of me which really was kind of out of left field. Because I’ve never attacked Jon personally.
“Up until that very point, he had never taken a shot at me personally. He’d obviously said he’s gonna kick my ass, he’s even said, ‘I don’t like that he said this,’ but he’s never been able to refute anything I said because I always talk about Jon very factually.
“He does this well, he does that well, he was suspended for this, but I never get into his drug test bullsh*t,” Anthony Smith continued. “I never even told anyone Jon failed every drug test the entire week leading up to our fight. Every single drug test. I never brought it up one time in any interview, in any media thing, nothing. The commission called me every day to let me know he was still failing his drug tests. I never said anything, I let it be because I was just focused on myself and always believed that if you just focus on yourself you’re going to be that much more successful.”
Smith finished off by adding that he was just very shocked by the personal shots and thinks it didn’t go well for Jones who received backlash online. Currently, Jones continues his bulk up to heavyweight for what fans hope is an eventual title fight.
On September 18, Anthony Smith looks to get back on a winning streak when facing off with Ryan Spann.