Anthony Smith Shogun Rua UFC Fight Night 134
CHICAGO, IL - JUNE 09: Anthony Smith is declared the winner after defeating Rashad Evans by TKO in the first round in their light heavyweight bout during the UFC 225: Whittaker v Romero 2 event at the United Center on June 9, 2018 in Chicago, Illinois. (Photo by Dylan Buell/Getty Images)

Anthony Smith has done well taking out the elderly. He smashed Hector Lombard, wrecked Rashad Evans, and what he did to Shogun Rua… ugh. I guess this counts as momentum in the light-heavyweight division.

Volkan Oezdemir had momentum. He beat everyone in the Octagon pretty handily (and even beat up some cat outside of a bar), but when he challenged champ Daniel Cormier for the belt… ugh.

In the main event of UFC Fight Night 138, the good folks of Moncton, Middle Earth, got to witness these two throw down. And like the hobbit with too much ale and mead in his belly, boy did it get sloppy.

Let me just make it clear that Oezdemir was doing a pretty good job of kicking Smith’s butt for the first two rounds. He was aggressive, he was landing hard strikes, he was stuffing takedowns – and even scored one of his own. Smith was hanging in there, but he was getting nowhere fast.

Then Oezdemir was exhausted, and that exhaustion brought sloppiness. Granted, Smith was exhausted, too. However, when it came time for Oezdemir to scramble and huff and puff, Smith took his back, and worked in a choke.

Now Smith’s momentum continues, while Oezdemir goes back to beating up dudes in bars.

Afterwards, there was talk of Smith facing the returning Jon Jones at some point. Look, based on tonight’s performance, Smith is going to have to a take a lot of steroids for that match-up to be competitive.

I mean, Smith is going to have to take a lot of steroids just to combat the pharmacy full of drugs that will be coursing through Jones’ system.

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