“I’m in, man [to fill in at UFC 227 for Volkan Oezdemir]. I got a pretty tall task ahead of me, ya know, with [Mauricio] ‘Shogun’ [Rua]. But if it goes well and I get out of there uninjured, I have no problem leaving here and going straight to LA. I’m in.

I’m a company man and I’m ready to keep going, you know? I like quick turnarounds and I can jump right in there and [Alexander Gustafsson] doesn’t have a fight, he still needs one, I’m in. I’ll take it.

I’m always ready. I was already wanting to get on that Lincoln card so I was already staying in shape and already getting ready for something. The Rashad [Evans] fight wasn’t even that long ago so I didn’t get a chance to get out of shape even if I wanted to.”

The light heavyweight shufflings of UFC Hamburg and UFC 227 seem to have been doomed from the start as Volkan Oezdemir is now injured.

Originally supposed to be in the Hamburg main event across from Mauricio ‘Shogun’ Rua was Oezdemir. That was until the UFC decided to pull him from the card to fight Alexander Gustafsson at UFC 227.

Which led to Anthony Smith stepping in to take on the former UFC champion.

When we thought everything was all good to go between both events, disaster struck with Oezdemir’s injury. Thus giving Smith the opportunity to fill in for him twice assuming he gets past Shogun unscathed as he mentions.

Only one fight into his light heavyweight career and Smith could find himself straight into the thick of things in the thin 205-pound wasteland. Of course, this all really depends on if he can snap Shogun’s three-fight winning streak this Sunday in his first UFC main event appearance.

This article first appeared on BJPenn.com on 7/20/2018