“He’s super tricky because he doesn’t leave a lot of opportunities,” Smith said
” podcast with Michael Bisping. “He doesn’t have a lot of holes in his game. He’s just very fundamentally sound. I like that it’s a three-round fight because I can really push the pace hard, and I think if I can just put my foot on the gas and go, I don’t think there’s a lot of people in the world that can beat me at 205. I just don’t. If I have no fear of getting tired, and I don’t really have to manage my energy, I don’t really have to do that over 15 minutes.
“You add another 10 minutes, another fourth and a fifth round, that’s kind of where I got into trouble with Glover. I didn’t manage my energy well enough going into that fight, and honestly to be fair, I thought I could get him out of there so I didn’t really worry about managing it. I thought if I landed a couple of hard shots he would go out and look for the door, and he didn’t, and I just wasn’t able to land that really nice shot. But in my defense, if that’s a three-round fight, I win that fight.”
“I don’t have to worry about that so much with Ankalaev,” Smith stated.
“I would like to get him on his back, I really would. I’d like to see how he is. Everyone talks about his ground and pound and his top control, I think I’ll be just fine.”
