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MONCTON, Canada – Anthony Smith understands the reason for Jon Jones being placed in a title fight in his return to the UFC, even if he does think it’s “unfair.” However, Smith also believes it’s the best course of action for the sake of the light heavyweight division.

Smith (30-13 MMA, 6-3 UFC), who meets Volkan Oezdemir in a key 205-pound bout in Saturday’s UFC Fight Night 138 headliner, expects to be in the thick of the title mix should he come out victorious. With current champ Daniel Cormier spending his recent time at heavyweight, though, Smith said it’s hard to strongly oppose booking Jones (21-1 MMA, 16-1 UFC) vs. Alexander Gustafsson (18-4 MMA, 10-4 UFC) at UFC 232 for what will be the vacant belt.

“As far as Jon Jones goes: Like I’ve said 100 times, I’ll never talk about anything Jon Jones does personally because that’s his own life,” Smith told MMAjunkie at UFC Fight Night 138 media day. “He wants to mess it up, that’s on him. As unfair as it does seem that Jon Jones is back in a title shot, the title’s back in rotation, and that’s something ‘DC’ wasn’t doing. I said 100 times I never thought ‘DC’ was going to come back to 205.”

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

With Cormier being both the UFC heavyweight and light heavyweight champion, he will be forced to give up the title once the bout between Jones and Gustafsson goes down. From Smith’s perspective, it’s actually progress for the division and someone such as himself, who wants to fight for gold.

If Cormier was committed to returning to the weight class then Smith said he might feel differently about the situation. But given the current circumstances, he’s satisfied with how things are playing out.

“I understand,” Smith said. “He’s the double champ, and he wanted to hold onto that as long as he could, and I couldn’t say that I would’ve done any different. I’m just glad that it’s moving again. I just hope that Jon doesn’t beat Gustafsson and then hold the division up again.

“I just don’t think that Daniel has any intention (of defending). I think that’s what it comes down to. If he had a timeline of like, ‘I’m going to fight Derrick Lewis at this time, and then in March I’m going to defend the 205 title,’ I think he’d still have it. But I think Jon Jones and Gustafsson fighting for it, he has no intention.”

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