“He’s not as hungry as me”- Paul Craig draws a stark contrast between him and Anthony Smith
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Paul Craig vs Anthony Smith
Submission specialist, Paul Craig got the fourth straight win of his career against Nikita Krylov at UFC London. The light heavyweight contender was coming off from a first-round submission victory over Jamahal Hill, and he had to overcome adversity to get this one in the bag.
Nikita landed a takedown at the beginning of round 1, and he was landing some big shots from the top. Paul is used to fighting from the back, but he had everyone worried by the position he landed in. He attempted various submissions but Nikita defended them well. He even moved to side control, but Paul secured the guard again to finally submitting him with an arm-bar.
Craig called out the former title challenger, Anthony Smith after this fight, and Smith responded to the call-out immediately. He wrote, “Ankalaev, Craig…whoever. The answer is yes. Always yes. It’s not me that you have to convince.“
Craig talked about climbing the ranks, and what’s needed to be successful in the division, “Everybody in the top 10 has an outstanding jiu-jitsu game, and they have an outstanding striking game and wrestling game,” Craig said. “You need to be all-around to be in this game. You can’t have one thing unless you’re the ‘Bearjew.’ All you need is that Bearjew-jitsu, and if you’ve got that, then you can go to the top and you can be the champ.”
“Is it better than mine? I don’t think so”- Paul Craigs believes his Jiu-Jitsu is far more superior than Anthony Smith
Smith is a veteran of the sport, and he’s been facing top-level contenders all throughout his career. The former title challenger had a little skid in the past, but he looked better than ever in his past fights. Craig acknowledges Smith as a legit challenger, but he believes his Jiu-Jitsu skills would be too much for Smith to handle.
He said, “Do I think Anthony Smith’s got good jiu-jitsu? Yes. Is it better than mine? I don’t think so. He’s not as hungry as me, and he’s not putting himself in danger to get submissions. I hunt for submissions. And in that fight there was times where people must have thought, ‘That’s a rear-naked choke’ — right, it wasn’t a rear-naked choke — ‘That triangle’s nearly in, awww!’”
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“That’s what I do. It’s like telling a story. If the story I tell is I wake up in the morning and I go through my day and I wake up and I go to bed, that’s not a very exciting story. What I do is this. That’s the sport. The sport is about entertainment and I believe I entertain people when I step into that octagon,” Craig concluded.
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Suryansh Thakur
(1600 Articles Published)