Former UFC light-heavyweight title challenger Anthony Smith has shared his take on the recent UFC 259 incident. Aljamain Sterling and Petr Yan fought for the bantamweight belt in the pay-per-view, where Yan was disqualified for landing an illegal shot on Sterling. Subsequently, he lost his belt.
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The whole saga was very controversial. Experts, fans, and fellow fighters have all shared their opinions on what actually happened. ‘Lionheart’ has chimed in on the incident as well. He believes the referees need to be sterner, as they need to take better control of such situations.
He believes officials must be educated enough to know when a fighter is hurt and the fight needs to be stopped. The legality of a shot is a secondary problem, and whether the fighter can continue or not should be prioritized first.
“That’s my point. The legality of the shot shouldn’t matter. If that knee was legal, he would have stopped that fight right afterwards. Had his knee come up, he would have stopped that fight because Aljo wouldn’t have continued,” said Smith.
“Mark Smith, Herb Dean, Jason Herzog, Keith Peterson, all of them know what a fighter looks like when he’s hurt and can’t continue. If they say they can’t, they should get a new f**king job. It’s so frustrating to me,” added ‘Lionheart’.
Amith has a point here. If ‘Funkmaster’ wasn’t able to continue, the legal aspect of that shot doesn’t matter, and ‘No Mercy’ should have been disqualified right away.
Anthony Smith has his fair share of experience with illegal shots
Smith fought Jon ‘Bones‘ Jones for the light-heavyweight title at UFC 235. In the fourth round of the fight, Jones hit Smith with an illegal knee while Smith was grounded. He could have decided to not continue and won the belt subsequently. But Smith proved why he is known as ‘Lionheart‘ and carried on with the contest.
Smith will be back in action in April as he fights Jimmy Crute at UFC 261. ‘Lionheart’ will look to build on his submission win against Devin Clark last term.
What did you make of Anthony Smith’s take on the UFC 259 incident? Let us know.
