King Green believes former UFC champion T.J. Dillashaw was too harsh on Anthony Smith.
Dillashaw claimed Smith will never be a UFC champ because he doesn’t have the heart and has a tendency to quit in fights. Green argued that you can’t accuse someone of not having heart if they’ve made the walk as many times as Smith (38-21 MMA, 13-11 UFC) has.
“When you said he wasn’t a champ or he wasn’t going to be a champ, I get that, brother, I get it, but there’s other parts to that,” Green said on the “JAXXON PODCAST.” “You’re not going to understand. I was looking up your record. You’re 18-5, is it? OK, so that’s 23 fights. You see how many fights Anthony Smith has? He has like 50-something, crazy number. I’m not comparing the two. What I’m trying to get you to understand is this: When you say he don’t have no heart, you don’t walk that walk 50 something times against the UFC’s best.
“One thing that you’ve been dealing with, injuries, and you can understand that part. For you to go out there 50-something times, you have to go out there busted up a lot. I think we don’t take into consideration some of the things that maybe happen behind the scenes. Yeah, I see what you were saying, too. Sometimes there’s a little quit in him, but sometimes you don’t know, bro. My nose is already broke four times, and he just hit me right in my sh*t again.”
Smith challenged for a UFC title when he took on then-light heavyweight champ Jon Jones in March 2019. He was struck with what used to be deemed an illegal knee to a downed opponent but chose to continue fighting. He lost the bout by unanimous decision.
“Lionheart” will compete one final time before hanging his gloves up when he takes on Zhang Mingyang (18-6 MMA, 2-0 UFC) at UFC Fight Night in Kansas City, which takes place April 26.
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