Anthony Smith Doesn’t ‘Give A F*ck’ What Happens In Alexander Gustafsson Fight
This weekend (Sat. June 1, 2019) a massive light heavyweight bout main events UFC Stockholm.
Former 205-pound title challengers Anthony Smith and Alexander Gustafsson will square off inside the Ericsson Globe in Stockholm, Sweden. Both men come off defeats to division king Jon “Bones” Jones. In his last outing, Smith was defeated by Jones via unanimous decision.
Speaking on “The MMA Hour” earlier today (Tues. May 28, 2019), “Lionheart” claimed he doesn’t “give a f*ck” what happens in the fight. He simply wants to perform (via MMA Fighting):
“To be honest with you, I don’t give a f**k what happens in the fight,” Smith said. “I want to perform and that’s it. I want to hit him as many times as I possibly can, I want to punch when I can punch, I want to kick when I can kick and if he gets to close I’ll drag him to the f**king ground and if he gets up then I’ll do it again. That’s all I want to do. I want to perform.
“That’s as far as my mind has gone. After that, we’ll see what happens because it’s not even about Alex, it’s about me. This is about wanting to take a break but I can’t do it with this burning feeling in my stomach. I have this feeling where I just need to destroy something. So whatever happens in the interim, it doesn’t matter to me. I just need to get this feeling out of my stomach and it’s driving me crazy and it keeps me up at night. I just don’t give a s**t.
“It could be Alex, it could have been 10 other guys in the division. There’s no gameplan. Those last two fights, I think I got a little too intricate with the gameplans and I think it made me think too much. I’m an instinctual fighter and I always have been so I think got away brought me to the dance. I’m a pressure guy that gets in your face and swings hammers.
“I could be a super clean striker that’s really pretty and ‘OOs’ and ‘AHHs’ everybody. But deep down in my heart, that’s not who I am and I think that, I don’t know, maybe I was trying to be something I’m not [against Jones].”
As for Gustafsson, he was defeated by Jones in December. “Bones” finished the Swede in the third round of their title bout. Prior to that, Gustafsson was on a two-fight win streak against Jan Blachowicz and Glover Teixeira. Prior to his defeat to Jones, Smith was on a three-fight win streak over names such as Rashad Evans, Mauricio Rua, and Volkan Oezdemir.
Adding a name like Gustafsson to his list of victories could put “Lionheart” on the fast track back to the title picture.
