BREAKING | UFC Moncton gets Volkan Oezdemir vs Anthony Smith as headliner
The UFC’s next event in Canada has its main event! And it’s a good one as two of the light heavyweight division’s quickest finishers face off.
After his very impressive quick destruction of the legendary Mauricio “Shogun” Rua, Anthony Smith was vying to fill in for Volkan Oezdemir at UFC 227 against Alexander Gustafsson.
Funny enough, Smith was filling in for Oezdemir against Shogun as well but now the two find themselves facing each other next as the UFC announced they’ll headline UFC Moncton on October 27th.
Get your 🍿 ready!@Volkan_Oezdemir faces @LionheartSmith in the main event at #UFCMoncton Oct. 27! pic.twitter.com/Pd2OMGfliE
— UFC (@ufc) August 2, 2018
Both fighters have risen through the 205-pound rankings faster than anyone else has in recent memory.
Oezdemir, of course, went on his 2017 “No Time” run where he defeated three top 10 fighters in the span of a year and earned his title shot. The latter of the two wins in that streak both came in under a minute just further living up to that name.
The career middleweight, Smith made his light heavyweight debut at UFC 225 when he knocked out a former UFC champion in Rashad Evans also just under a minute. This loss resulted in Evans’ retirement.
After that, Smith was looking for absolutely anyone to take on at UFC Lincoln as he’s a Nebraska resident. But the opportunity presented itself for him to take on another former champ in Shogun and he sure made the best of that.
In Smith’s first UFC main event he would dispatch of his second consecutive former champion in brutal fashion needing only a minute and 28 seconds to do so.
Coming out unscathed in both matchups, Smith is now staring at his biggest test yet at light heavyweight in the form of Switzerland’s Oezdemir.
on 8/2/2018