MONCTON, Canada – Anthony Smith has made easy work of his first two opponents since moving to the light heavyweight division earlier this year. He intends on doing the same thing to Volkan Oezdemir on Saturday in the UFC fight Night 138 main event.

Oezdemir (15-2 MMA, 3-1 UFC) had a quick rise up the 205-pound rankings to get a title shot against Daniel Cormier in January. He returns for the first time since failing to capture UFC gold and meets Smith (30-13 MMA, 6-3 UFC), who said he’s going to make a statement in the headlining bout.

“I promise you that I’m going to demolish Volkan,” Smith told MMAjunkie at UFC fight Night 138 media day. “It’s not even going to be close. I’m telling you: It’s going to be a dominant performance, and what you guys are going to read is that Volkan didn’t even deserve to be at the top, and he just had a quick rise, and no one really knew how good he was, and now we really know that he’s not that good. That’s exactly what you guys are going to read Monday.”

UFC Fight Night 138 takes place at SMG Moncton. Smith vs. Oezdemir headlines the FS1-televised main card following prelims on FS2 and UFC Fight Pass.

Smith, an honorable mention in the latest USA TODAY Sports/MMAjunkie MMA light heavyweight rankings, has kept things relatively tame in the lead-up to the upcoming fight. No. 6 Oezdemir, meanwhile, has been more vocal. He’s vowed to show the title-fight loss to Cormier was nothing more than a hiccup, but Smith said he has no intention of being a piece of Oezdemir’s story back to title contention.

“Volkan’s a different story because of the things he’s been saying and the way he carries himself,” Smith said. “Just the total disregard and disrespect for me that he has. I haven’t said too much about it, but I plan on reminding him of everything on Saturday for sure.

“(I don’t like) the stupid (expletive). Like, ‘Now it’s time for me to find out what it’s like at the top of the division.’ What the hell does that mean? How did it work out for him the last time he was at the top of the division? It didn’t work out too goddamn good if you ask me. Talking about how I’m not a great striker, and he only wanted to fight me because of the hype right, and I don’t really deserve it. Like, that’s just some arrogant (expletive). I told him a month ago, ‘Be very careful what you say because you don’t want to feel stupid later on when I throw it in your face.’”

If Smith manages to emerge victorious at UFC Fight Night 138 he would be 3-0 at light heavyweight and ranked among the top contenders. He believes adding Oezdemir to a body of work that already includes former UFC champs Mauricio Rua and Rashad Evans would be a resume worthy of a championship bout.

“As long as I get to a title shot I don’t care what people say,” Smith said. “It doesn’t matter to me. It’s kind of been the narrative my whole career. It’s not about how good I am. It’s always been about how bad my opponents are. That’s the narrative I used to try to change all the time, and now I don’t care. As long as I’m opposite whoever wins the Jon Jones vs. Alexander Gustafsson fight, I don’t care.”

Smith said he intends on putting away Oezdemir quickly, and hopefully that will mean he’s injury-free. Smith said he plans to jump right back into training camp afterward, though, with the hope of being a backup for the planned title fight between Jones (22-1 MMA, 16-1 UFC) and Gustafsson (18-4 MMA, 10-4 UFC) at UFC 232 in December.

“Lionheart” will be prepared to step in if he’s needed, but if it doesn’t pan out that way, he said he’s interested in a bit of a layoff from competition.

“Hopefully I can get out of this one uninjured, and I can stay ready just in case something happens to Jon Jones or Gustafsson,” Smith said. “Nothing against those guys, but they don’t really have the best track record of staying in fights. They do have a tendency to have situations come up. I’ll stay ready for that one, and if not I’ll look to come back in July. It’ll be nice to have a break and work on building some skills between that.”

For more on UFC Fight Night 138, check out the UFC Rumors section of the site.