Anthony Smith clears up Alex Pereira situation: 'I never challenged him on anything'

Anthony Smith is straightforward about exactly what's going on between him and Alex Pereira.

“Lionheart” is unlikely to get another UFC title shot any time soon, which is one of the reasons why it bothers him that the reigning light heavyweight champion keeps bringing him up. In the latest war of words between the two, Pereira issued a $50,000 challenge to Smith, which Smith happily accepted after defeating Vitor Petrino at UFC 301 last weekend.

In his role as an analyst, Smith recently noted that Pereira, a former kickboxing star, has had incredible success in MMA even though his wrestling is still developing. This has led to much controversy between Smith and Pereira – and Pereira's fans – and Smith wants to make it clear that he simply takes what the champion gives him.

“There’s another thing I think about a lot,” Smith said on air. MMA Hour. “Everywhere: “Oh, of course, Anthony wants to fight Alex Pereira. Of course, he only wants to do one part of mixed martial arts.” Because it wasn't my damn idea. It wasn't my damn idea. Every time Alex Pereira discussed wrestling, he damn sure brought it up. I never challenged him to anything, not even a fight, because I was not in a position where I could confidently challenge him. The answer to what the hell he wants to do is yes.

“If he wants to fight, box, kickbox, wrestle, fucking thumb wrestling, checkers, chess, Halo on Xbox, I don’t give a damn. Whatever he wants to do, the answer is yes. But I'm not the one who continues to challenge him. If he wants to fight, yes, I will definitely do it. I would choose this out of everything I just said, it would probably be the most interesting for me. But I’m not the one who constantly raises this issue.”

Pereira attended UFC 301 in Rio de Janeiro to witness Smith's fight in person. When Smith entered the cage, “Poatan” pretended to be asleep and shared a video of his prank on social media.

Although Smith didn't notice Pereira's antics in person, he watched the video later and admitted that he found it funny.

“It's weird,” Smith said. “I don’t come to him. I never came for him like this. Of course, you have the title belt in my division, so when people ask, “What's your goal?” I want to fight the champion. I want to fight Alex Pereira. But he tries his best to pick on me, and that's okay. It doesn't bother me, I think it's actually great, it's a lot of fun because he has a sense of humor.

“Like I’ve always said, he’s not a guy who just has a serial killer mentality. He has a sense of humor, he's funny, he has very good momentum on social media, and he does a good job of shaping and weaving media. He's very, very smart, so I like that part. It's just weird to me.”

Smith's win at UFC 301 not only made him the first fighter to defeat Petrino, but it was also Smith's first win in Brazil. He previously fought in Belem in February 2018 when he suffered a knockout loss to Thiago Santos, prompting a career-changing move up to light heavyweight.

Since then, he's fought the best of the best in the 205-pound division, once challenging Jon Jones for UFC gold, and he approaches the latter stages of his career with patience and appreciation. Surprisingly, he adopted this philosophy from Pereira's close friend and coach Glover Teixeira.

“Glover gave me a lot of life advice, a lot of career advice,” Smith said. “That's what he did. He just gave 100 percent in every fight and took one at a time. And he just collected enough ‘ones’ and ended up in a title shot.”