Anthony Smith’s next fight will be against Ryan Spann at UFC Fight Night 196 on September 18th.
A former light-heavyweight title contender, Smith hit a rough patch of form in the summer of last year, suffering two losses in a row against Glover Teixeira and Aleksander Rakic.
However, the 32-year-old ‘Lionheart’ has since secured back-to-back victories courtesy of a submission finish against Devin Clark followed by a TKO stoppage of Jimmy Crute, and as such he’s currently ranked No.6 in the 205lb weight class.
As for Spann, he’s coming off a swift TKO finish against Misha Circunov in March, stopping him in just 71 seconds.
Prior to that, the 29-year-old Spann had himself suffered a first round KO loss against Johnny Walker, but overall he’s gone 5-1 in his six Octagon outings to date and as the No.11 ranked light-heavyweight he’ll see this fight as an opportunity to break into the top 10.
Smith vs Spann is the only big fight so far announced for UFC Fight Night 196, which doesn’t yet have a location confirmed, though recently Dana White had suggested that all Fight Night events may just remain at the APEX facility in Las Vegas for the remaining months of the year due to continued uncertainty regarding Covid-19 restrictions.
