Smith: "Pereira wouldn't agree to fight Ankalaev at UFC 303"

American welterweight Anthony Smith commented on champion Alex Pereira's agreement to rematch Jiri Prochazka at UFC 303, which takes place June 29 in Las Vegas.

Conor McGregor was expected to fight Michael Chandler in the main event of this show, but the Irish star withdrew due to an injury. This forced prmotion to schedule a new main event two weeks before the tournament.

"Pereira agreed to fight at UFC 303 because of the opponent. He wouldn't have agreed to fight Ankalaev on short notice. And I'm not trying to praise myself, but he wouldn't likely want to fight me at UFC 303 either. It's just a different skill set, so you need a different approach in training as well. Alex has been preparing for Jiri before, he's familiar with his style. He's fought him before, so there's no excitement about something unexpected.

If I fight Pereira - I can say in advance that I won't stand in front of him. It will be a full-fledged fight with all the opportunities," Smith said in an interview with Michael Bisping.