Dominick Reyes vs Anthony Smith Prediction: Knockout is Inevitable

On the night of December 8th, two of the USA's top fighters – Dominick Reyes and Anthony Smith – will be sharing the octagon in the preliminary card of the UFC 310 tournament. The fight will be in the light heavyweight division, and in the UFC rankings for this division Reyes is in twelfth place, while Smith is thirteenth. 

Dominick Reyes has been at the top of the UFC rankings for a long time, but he hasn't quite made it to the championship yet. He lost both of his title fights, to Jon Jones and Jan Blachowicz. What's more, many experts believe he beat Jones, but the judges had a different idea. Either way, the fight with Reyes was undoubtedly the toughest of Jones's career. 

Reyes is a basic kickboxer and tends to win or lose by knockout. He's had four straight losses, which is a bit discouraging, but it's easy to see why. His opponents - Jon Jones, Jan Blachowicz, Jiri Prochazka, Ryan Spann - were the best at their prime. But as soon as the level of competition eased up a bit, everything fell into place. In his last bout, Dominick Reyes knocked out Dustin Jacoby in the first round.

Anthony Smith isn't that old (relatively speaking, at least), but he's been through a lot of bloody fights. He's already had 58 professional fights, one as impressive as the next, 35 early victories, a title fight with Jon Jones (where Smith did really well) and the best the flyweight division has to offer as opposition. But even the best careers come to an end, and in his last six fights Anthony has only managed two wins. In the last bout, Roman Dolidze defeated him by unanimous decision.

The cage will be shared by two fighters with a history of knockouts and a knack for making mistakes and then bouncing back. The atmosphere will be electric, and as is often the case in these situations, it will all end in a spectacular blaze of glory.