On May 13, Anthony Smith will fight Glover Teixeira in the main event of UFC Fight Night 175. In case you have forgotten about Smith, his fight with Maurício Rua should help you bring back some memories.
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For a very long time, Anthony Smith was considered a journeyman fighter. However, his move up to the light heavyweight division changed the course of his career. ‘Lionheart’ destroyed Rashad Evans in his divisional debut.
After his match with Evans, he took on the former King of the Division, Mauricio ‘Shogun’ Rua.
The event took place on 22 July 2018 in Hamburg, Germany. Although it wasn’t a fan-pleasing card, there were some decent fights. After nine straight decisions, Smith and Rua made their way to the Octagon.
Rua walked into the cage with a three-fight win streak whereas Smith was on a 1 fight win streak. Marc Goddard was the referee in the octagon for this light heavyweight main event.
Anthony Smith devastates ‘Shogun’ Rua
Maurício came out and took the center of the cage while Smith stayed on the outside and landed some leg kicks. Smith connected a front kick to the face and then caught the Brazilian with a right hand to the temple that stumbled him.
‘Shogun’ found it difficult to keep his feet underneath him. Smith landed some heavy shots and backed Rua to the cage. A huge elbow from Smith turned the lights out on Rua. It seemed like Rua was out on his feet before Smith dropped him with strikes. Anthony Smith closed the show in round one.
Following his win over Shogun, Smith went on to submit Volkan Oezdemir in his next bout. After that, he fought for the title against the greatest light heavyweights of all time, Jon Jones. In the fourth round of that fight, Smith suffered from an illegal knee.
If he wanted to, he could have accepted a DQ win. But he chose to finish the fight and went home with a unanimous decision loss.
His latest win came through Alexander Gustafsson in which he submitted the Swedish fighter in the fourth round via a rear-naked choke. Smith will return to action this Wednesday against another veteran in Glover Teixeira at the VyStar Veterans Memorial Arena in Jacksonville, Florida.
