Anthony Smith officially became part of the ‘Dana White publicly called for you to retire camp’ with his knockout loss to Dominick Reyes at UFC 310 in December 2024. To be fair, ‘Lionheart’, went into that fight after the death of his longtime coach and friend, Scott Morton, and was grieving. And he did tell Joe Rogan in the post-fight interview that he would probably be retiring. So, White calling on him to retire after the PPV wasn’t as bad as it seems at first glance. But, the American took back his retirement shortly after, claiming he just cannot go out like that and needs at least one more fight.
So the UFC delivered, and has matched him up against the unranked, yet incredibly dangerous Zhang Mingyang at UFC Kansas City on April 26. And what an intriguing matchup it is. While ‘Lionheart’ was “very shocked” on finding out he would be fighting the Chinese fighter, he quickly came around to it. After all, ‘Mountain Tiger’ is an exciting prospect and may be the next big thing in the division. In this article, we take a look at why their clash is so interesting and make our official prediction for it.
UFC Kansas City: Anthony Smith vs Zhang Mingyang stats
Zhang Mingyang, as we have mentioned, is a knockout artist. Of his 18 wins in his 24-fight career, twelve have been first-round knockouts! The other six have been submissions, which just goes to show how well-developed his game is. Surprisingly, even Smith, who also has a well-rounded game, has twelve first-round knockout wins in his MMA career, but they are just a third of his 37 career wins.
As far as their measurements go, there is not much separating the two men. Anthony Smith is 6’4″, while ‘Mountain Tiger’ is 6’2. The former 205lbs title challenger has a reach of 76 inches, while his opponent has a one-inch reach disadvantage compared to Smith. However, there is a sharp contrast in their fight stats. To be fair, Mungyang has only fought in the UFC thrice so far, so his fight stats may change dramatically as he fights tougher opponents.
But in his three fights so far, ‘Mountain Tiger’ has landed an unbelievable, head-spinning 8.57 significant strikes on his opponents per minute on average at 55% accuracy. Landed, not just thrown over eight strikes per minute. On the other hand, Smith lands just 3.20 significant strikes on his opponents every minute on average, with 49% of his significant strikes finding their target.
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On the other hand, Mingyang’s incredibly high output rate also comes with a slight cost, as he absorbs 5.59 significant strikes per minute, compared to ‘Lionheart’s 4.88. But stats are stats and sometimes have no bearing on the result of a fight. The more interesting question is, who will win the fight? Well, let’s discuss.
Smith vs Mingyang breakdown and prediction
One thing we can say for sure about Anthony Smith vs. Zhang Mingyang is that their UFC Kansas City clash will be a strike-fest. It has the potential to even be a Fight of the Year contender if the fight is indeed as action-packed as the stats and the matchup suggest. After all, whatever you may think of Smith and how good he is, the man always comes to fight. And so does Mingyang.
So it would just be a question of who can find the other’s chin first. We don’t see this fight going the distance, with a first or second-round knockout the most likely result. Smith, of course, has become unpopular among fans because of his recent form. The American has won only two out of his last seven fights and doesn’t look like the same ‘Lionheart’ he was half a decade ago.
So the temptation is to predict a win for Mingyang, especially given his unbelievable stats and knockout rate. But we think Anthony Smith will knock out Zhang Mingyang in their UFC Kansas City clash. After all, Smith may have lost quite a bit in the recent past, but it has come at the hands of some of the top guys in the division. Not to mention, he choked out the then-undefeated Vitor Petrino in their UFC 301 clash in May 2024, which shows that he still can fight at a high level and beat hyped, yet unproven, young prospects.
A lion that gets old is still a lion and not going to be beaten by one hyena. Maybe ‘Mountain Tiger’ proves that he is a lion too by beating Smith in Kansas City. But until he does, our money is on the veteran. What do you think about our prediction for the Anthony Smith vs. Zhang Mingyang clash?
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