Anthony Smith is looking for a fight with anyone, anytime and has some heated words for the rest of the 205-pound fighters in his division.

When it comes to booking fights, Anthony Smith is ready to take on anyone, anytime. Unfortunately for Anthony, it seems that the rest of the light heavyweights don’t feel the same. Coming off a dominating victory over former light heavyweight champion Rashad Evans on June 9th at UFC 225, Smith is looking to get back into the Octagon sooner rather than later. Wanting to fight and actually finding the right opportunity are two different things, and Smith has a theory on why fighters don’t want to face him.

“Everyone’s got the same f**cking excuse, it’s the same s**t that happened at middleweight, the guys who are ranked are like ‘I only want to fight other ranked guys,” Smith told Cage Side Submission radio. “The guys who aren’t ranked tell me to go fight ranked guys. Really when it comes down to it the entire UFC is packed with a bunch of (expletive). It’s guys who don’t really want to fight, they want to protect their ranking.”

In the past week alone, there have been many fights switched around to accommodate fighters dropping out or getting injured. One, in particular, was Paul Felder, who lost his opponent last-minute for the second time this year and was set up to face someone else of short notice.

“I would be mad as hell if I was Paul Felder, but I know what he is going through as far as it’s difficult to get fights,” Smith explained. “I don’t know what happened to the days when guys just got a phone call and said ‘This is who you are fighting and here is the date,’ and they just went and fought. I don’t know what happened to that but that’s the era I grew up in and the mentality that I still have I don’t give a s**t who it is and you’ve seen it. I’ll fight Devin Clark, I’ll fight Gustafsson. Whether you’re ranked, a no-name or ranked No. 1, I don’t give a s**t, they are all the same.”

Shuffling of fights may be working is Smiths favor this time, as he is rumored to a possible main event against Shogun Rua who lost his opponent Volkan Oezdemir for UFC Hamburg. This is exactly the type of situation Smith relishes.

“I don’t want to toot my own horn here, but I get paid as f**k, I’m one of the higher paid 205-ers in the division. You don’t see me weaving my way in and out of the division trying to get the easiest fights. They pay me because I show up and I fight my ass off and I do what I’m supposed to do. If the UFC calls they know that they don’t have to call me first. They call the other guy, they know that when I answer the phone it’s a yes.”

Smith is 4-1 in his last five fights in the UFC. His last win over Evans was his first and light heavyweight. He looks to continue moving up the light heavyweight rankings and eventually find himself up there with the fighters that have avoided him to this point.