By the time Anthony Smith made the move to light heavyweight, it seemed as though the book had been written on his MMA career. The then-29-year-old was coming off a decisive loss to fellow action-fighter Thiago Santos. Both men had made names for themselves as dangerous opponents who would take on all comers, but both also seemed like they were too wild and unstructured to make a climb to title contention.
Fast forward a year and Smith is once again coming off a loss, but this time in a light heavyweight championship fight against Jon Jones, having racked up a 3-bout win streak over former champs Rashad Evans, Shogun Rua, and title contender Volkan Oezdemir.