But seeing the two back together, that was a surprise to many, including Smith, who figured Spann would want to steer clear of him after the one-sided result of their first fight.
“It tells me a lot about him,” said Smith. “Think about this: not only has he been begging for this rematch, he’s doing it coming off a loss, losing to someone not as good as me. So I actually really admire it, if I’m being honest. And I think his pride is getting in the way a little bit because he’s never been beat like that before. He’s been in fights where they’ve been back and forth and then Krylov catches him, and he’s always had an excuse like, ‘Oh, well, I was doing really good. I was winning, but I just fell into that triangle, and it caught me.’ And he doesn’t have that with me. It was bell to bell in every single position we were in. He lost that fight. And I think that bothers him, and he wants to do everything he can to try to get that back because there’s no excuses. He had to sit down in that locker room and say, that guy’s just better than I am. I think that bothers him that he doesn’t have an excuse. It’s not even excuses to other people. It’s all in his own head. He can make an excuse for the Krylov loss. He can make an excuse for the Johnny Walker bulls**t. He can make an excuse for them all except for me.”
How To Watch Road To UFC Season 2
In other words, Spann has all the motivation in the world to want to get some get back against the Nebraskan. What’s Smith’s motivation? Yes, he wants to double his paycheck and get back in the win column, but beyond that, how does he top the performance he delivered against Spann in 2021?
