Anthony Smith might be Michael Bisping’s co-host on his podcast, but that hasn’t stop him from strongly criticising his friend for his decision to take on a short-notice fight against Khalil Rountree Jr late last year that ultimately led to him being TKO’d.
“I’m happy to hear that you still want to fight, but if you want to fight, you’ve got to be a little more meticulous about it, if you don’t mind me saying,” Bisping said on the ‘Believe You Me’ podcast. “I’ll be honest: I said it when we watched the fight on the live (broadcast), and I didn’t want to go into it because it’s like I was betraying you or whatever. I hated it. I was on a walk – I think it was Thanksgiving day when I got the message – and I found out you were fighting. I hated it.
“I f*cking hated it. I didn’t understand it. You’re a fighter, 100 percent, and you’ve got balls of steel. You’re like, ‘F*ck it, let’s go. I can do this.’ I think with the trend lately of people stepping up on short notice, Tom Aspinall going out there and doing it, and Volkanovski stepping up. All right, he lost. But it’s been kind of a thing, people stepping up on short notice. You only really do that when there’s something worth risking it for. I did it, but that was a title fight. I didn’t understand it because you gained nothing from that.”
Smith acknowledged that his impulsive decision to accept the fight with little time to prepare was a bad decision on his part and Bisping encouraged him to be smarter and more thoughtful about his choices going forward.
“You’ve just got to be more professional with it, as you say, in between camps with your weight and stuff like that leading up to fights and just making the correct choices,” Bisping said. “I would love to see you fight on a full camp against Khalil – and we can’t take away from Khalil’s performance. He did tremendous. But the purpose of a fight camp is not only to get you in shape, it’s to get you mentally ready, as well.”
The loss to Rountree means the 35-year-old former title contender has now lost three of his last four fights, but he still holds the No.10 spot on the light-heavyweight rankings heading into 2024.
