Anthony Smith is favored against Ryan Spann at UFC Fight Night: Smith vs. Spann on Saturday, September 18 in Las Vegas, Nevada. This event is one of 15 fights on ESPN+. Smith is 35-16 in his career, while Spann is 19-6 in his career. There are a total of 15 fights on ESPN+ at UFC Fight Night: Smith vs. Spann. Let’s look at the bout between Smith and Spann and UFC predictions.
UFC Fight Night: Smith vs. Spann takes place at UFC Apex facility in Las Vegas, Nevada on Saturday, September 18 with 15 fights, all on ESPN+.
UFC Fight Night: Smith vs. Spann Betting
Anthony Smith (35-16, 10-6 UFC)
Smith came into the UFC with a record of 18-9 and he has 10 wins and six losses in the UFC. In his last six fights, he has three wins and three losses. He defeated Alexander Gustafsson by rear-naked choke submission, Devin Clark by triangle choke submission, and Jimmy Crute by TKO; while losing to Jon Jones by unanimous decision, Glover Teixeira by TKO, and Aleksandar Rakic by unanimous decision. Smith has been a pro since 2008 and he has 19 wins by TKO/KO and 13 by submission. He has 18 first round finishes.
Smith said this to mmafighting.com about his upcoming fight against Spann, “He’s one of the more dangerous guys that I’ve faced in a long time. He’s super powerful. He’s athletic. He’s really big, he moves well. He has a lot of positive things to his game. I respect his abilities, for sure. I respect his attributes. I respect his skills. I just don’t — I guess I don’t talk about him.
Like, I don’t really know him. I have gotten a vibe that he doesn’t like me.”
“He’s the one who kept talking about, ‘This is a main event and I’m not nervous.’ Well, you’re the one who keeps talking about it. This is just every day for me. You’re the one who keeps bringing it up. I know Ryan Spann takes it as disrespect when I say that there’s nothing that stands out about him. I’m not saying he’s not good. I’m just saying he’s not an Olympic medalist wrestler, he’s not a multiple-time world champion grappler, and he’s not 150-1 as a kick boxer. He doesn’t do one thing overly better than the rest of his skills, so I don’t have to worry about it when I’m in training camp.
Ryan Spann (19-6, 5-1 UFC)
Spann came into the UFC with a record of 14-5 and he has five wins and one loss in the UFC. He defeated Luis Henrique by unanimous decision, Antônio Rogério Nogueira by KO, Devin Clark by guillotine choke submission, Sam Alvey by split decision, and Misha Cirkunov by TKO; while losing to Johnny Walker by KO. Spann has been a pro since 2013 and he has five wins by TKO/KO and 11 by submission. He has 14 first round finishes.
Spann said this to ufc.com about his upcoming fight against Smith, “The truth is he can say whatever he wants to say. There is no real pressure when it comes to fighting because truth be told, I’m pretty sure I’m the underdog betting wise, which means they are expecting me to lose. That means Anthony can take all his experience and all his main events and that’s pressure on him. If he can perform like that, then he performs like that, but if he can’t… he can’t. The result will be the same. He’ll be lying on his back looking up at me. I’m fighting for something much stronger and much different than he could come up with it. It won’t matter. I’m too close to changing my family’s lives to let Anthony Smith get in my way.”
Striking Stats
Strikes landed per minute: Smith 3.00 / Spann 3.55
Striking Accuracy: Smith 47% / Spann 45%
Strikes absorbed per minute: Smith 4.36 / Spann 3.45
Defense: Smith 42% / Spann 47%
Grappling Stats
Takedown average: Smith 0.47 / Spann 1.72
Takedown Accuracy: Smith 28% / Spann 41%
Takedowns defended: Smith 47% / Spann 60%
Submission average: Smith 0.7 / Spann 1.7
UFC Picks
This should be an entertaining fight for as long as it lasts. Look at the numbers. Smith has gotten the finish in 32 of his 35 wins, while 16 of Spann’s 19 wins were finishes. I’ll go under the rounds total in this fight.
UFC Fight Night: Smith vs. Spann Card & Odds
Light Heavyweight - Ryan Spann +135 vs. Anthony Smith-170
Light Heavyweight - Mike Rodriguez -105 vs. Tafon Nchukwi -125
Light Heavyweight - Devin Clark +115 vs. Ion Cu?elaba -145
Middleweight - Antonio Arroyo +161 vs. Joaquin Buckley -205
Lightweight - Dakota Bush -130 vs. Zhu Rong +100
Bantamweight - JP Buys +405 vs. Montel Jackson -600
Flyweight - Erin Blanchfield -325 vs. Sarah Alpar +244
Welterweight - Carlston Harris -105 vs. Impa Kasanganay-125
Women's Bantamweight - Raquel Pennington -125 vs. Pannie Kianzad -105
Bantamweight - Gustavo Lopez +100 vs. Heili Alateng -130
Lightweight - Christos Giagos +555 vs. Arman Tsarukyan -925
Bantamweight - Nate Maness +165 vs. Tony Gravely -210
Women's Strawweight - Hannah Goldy -105 vs. Emily Whitmire -125
Women's Flyweight - Ariane Lipski -120 vs. Mandy Bohm -110
Lightweight - Cameron VanCamp +228 vs. Nikolas Motta -300
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