There will be two men standing in the Octagon when Bruce Buffer announced to the world that “it’s time.” Two. One of them is arguably the most polarizing figure in mixed martial arts, Jon Jones, a man whom many of the press leading up to the event will be about. But indeed, there will be two men in that cage. And one of those men is, in actuality, a hungry lion. And that lion will be on the hunt for something much larger than a man, but it is the world title that is his prey, and that, Anthony Smith says, is what the UFC 235 main event is really all about:

“It’s about the world title,” Smith said in a recent appearance on The MMA Hour. “I feel like I’d be preparing and I’d feel exactly the same way if it was Gustafsson, or if it was Cormier, or whoever.

“It’s not about Jon Jones. And I think that’s kind of what’s thrown everybody off, is I’m not attacking Jon Jones. I’m not attacking who he is as a person, I’m not even talking about the things that he’s done wrong. Because I don’t care. I really don’t. This is about the gold belt that he has around his waist, and that’s it. That’s all I care about.”


This will be Anthony Smith’s first title shot in his UFC career. He has already defeated two former light heavyweight champions in Rashad Evans and Mauricio Rua. One common criticism for those victories is that the notion that Evans and Rua were both past their prime. Well, should he defeat Jon Jones, he won’t have to worry about such criticism.