Jacobe Smith says he said no to Bonfim main event: 'I wasn't willing to take it for 5 rounds'
The unbeaten welterweight says he was prepared for three rounds, and would have pulled out of his fight with Randy Brown to take it on those terms.
Jacobe Smith says he could have replaced Sean Brady against Gabriel Bonfim in the UFC Vegas 124 main event on 7 November, but said no because he was not willing to fight five rounds.
"I think I could have been a replacement for the November 7th Bonfim, but I had to say no," Smith told Ariel Helwani on The Ariel Helwani Show, adding that he "was prepared for a 3-rounder". If it had been made a three-round fight, he said, "I would have backed out of the fight with Randy and took that fight next week".
Helwani asked whether he had been approached. "It was mentioned," Smith said, adding: "So I could have been a main event."
Smith said he did not think Bonfim "was willing to take that". He went on: "And to be honest, I wasn't willing to take it for 5 rounds. If they could have, you know, did a little bit of changing some stuff around and made it a 3-rounder, but, you know, they do the 5-round main event, so it just didn't work out."
Brady has said a staph infection forced him out of the fight. Waldo Cortes-Acosta against Johnny Walker is the new main event, and Bonfim is due to be booked for another event at a later date.
Smith beat Randy Brown by unanimous decision in the co-main event of UFC Vegas 123, about four weeks after stopping Bruce Whitehead at UFC 332, and is now 14-0.
He said he will be in Orlando, Florida, from 7 to 14 November, taking his daughter to Disney World for her birthday. Asked where he will be this time next year, he said he wants to be in the top 15, and that he will try to push for a fight in Dallas on 16 January, the card Brady is also targeting.
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