{"id":281381,"date":"2018-07-23T08:39:57","date_gmt":"2018-07-23T15:39:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/?p=281381"},"modified":"2018-07-23T08:39:57","modified_gmt":"2018-07-23T15:39:57","slug":"anthony-smith-calls-the-top-of-the-light-heavyweight-division-a-disaster","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/anthony-smith\/anthony-smith-calls-the-top-of-the-light-heavyweight-division-a-disaster\/","title":{"rendered":"Anthony Smith calls the top of the light heavyweight division “a disaster”"},"content":{"rendered":"

When Anthony Smith knocked out former champion Mauricio “Shogun” Rua<\/a> in the main event of UFC Hamburg on Sunday, he established himself as one of the top contenders in the UFC light heavyweight division. Unfortunately, he feels the division is a bit of a disaster at present.<\/p>\n

Really, it’s easy to understand where Smith is coming from with these comments.<\/p>\n

The current light heavyweight champion, Daniel Cormier, recently moved up to heavyweight, where he captured the divisional title with a first-round knockout of Stipe Miocic. At present, there’s no certainty that he’ll return to the light heavyweight division before his planned March retirement.<\/p>\n

The former champion Jon Jones, who is the best fighter to ever compete in the division, is currently tied up in a complicated situation with the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA), and is not likely to fight any time soon.<\/p>\n

The top light heavyweight contender, Alexander Gustafsson, is currently injured.<\/a>\u00a0Volkan Oezdemir, another top contender, is also injured.<\/p>\n

Yes, it’s easy to understand why Anthony Smith is left scratching his head when he looks at the top of the division he now calls home.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know that DC [Daniel Cormier] wanted to fight Shogun for whatever reason and completely looked past me,\u201d Smith said of the division at the UFC Hamburg post-fight press conference (via Sherdog<\/a>). \u201cI said this last week, let them keep talking about each other, but the whole topic of the conversation is gonna change after this fight and I think that\u2019s where we\u2019re at right now. I don\u2019t know what DC\u2019s got planned right now. We\u2019ll see what other tricks he\u2019s got up his sleeve.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe top of the division is a disaster right now,” he continued. “Shogun was supposed to be next and now he\u2019s not. No one knows what\u2019s going on with Cormier. I think that that\u2019s the first step, we need to figure out if Cormier\u2019s staying or going.<\/p>\n

“I\u2019ve said this before, I think that Daniel is an honorable man and it wouldn\u2019t be a very honorable thing to do to hold up the division. He knows right now. You guys could ask him 100 times and he won\u2019t tell you, but he knows if he\u2019s coming back down or not, and I think that he needs to make that public so we can figure out what we\u2019re all doing.\u201d<\/p>\n

How do you think things will shake out in the chaotic light heavyweight division? Where do you think the surging Anthony Smith fits into the madness?<\/p>\n

This article first appeared on\u00a0<\/i>BJPenn.com<\/i><\/span><\/a>\u00a0on 7\/23\/2018. <\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When Anthony Smith knocked out former champion Mauricio “Shogun” Rua in the main event of UFC Hamburg on Sunday, he established himself as one of the top contenders in the UFC light heavyweight division. Unfortunately, he feels the division is a bit of a disaster at present. Really, it’s easy to understand where Smith is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":54430,"featured_media":280979,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false},"categories":[39522],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nAnthony Smith calls the top of the light heavyweight division "a disaster" | BJPenn.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/anthony-smith\/anthony-smith-calls-the-top-of-the-light-heavyweight-division-a-disaster\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Anthony Smith calls the top of the light heavyweight division "a disaster" | BJPenn.com\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"When Anthony Smith knocked out former champion Mauricio “Shogun” Rua in the main event of UFC Hamburg on Sunday, he established himself as one of the top contenders in the UFC light heavyweight division. 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