Smith looked great against Gus & had a nice finish vs Oezdemir. The Jones fight is a bit confusing because I thought he looked really bad there and when you combine that with how Jones looked recently it kind of makes you wonder where Smith ultimately lands. More than anything I just don't think Smith has any dynamic quality that would give him an advantage over someone like Jones where guys like Santos & Reyes have their striking ability.
Smith's whole path to this point is confusing to me.
Gus is a great name to have on your resume obviously, but it seemed like he kind of had one foot out the door already.
He did better against Jones than I thought he would in the sense I thought Jones would finish him. He got thoroughly dominated in that fight, though (even if he deserves all the props in the world for not taking the easy way out).
Volkan is just as confusing to me. He had a good run up to the title, but then got embarrassed by DC, lost to Smith, and then lost to Reyes. So it seemed like a flash in the pan and that was the big win that got Smith the title shot which seemed...thin. Now that Reyes beat Jones (I know, I know), it looks a lot better for Volkan (and Smith) and he's picked up a few more wins. So maybe he is a top 5 guy?
Other than that, he's got over the hill Shogun, over the hill Rashad, over the hill Lombard, and some MW's I don't don't know anything about.
A win over Glover isn't like "Holy shit! Give that man a title shot!" but I think it's still telling of where Smith is. Glover's 40 years old too, but he's still active and still winning.
But yeah, it's a decent matchup for Glover. His main weakness is that he is just so slow on the feet and I don't think Smith can really exploit that. But, I also don't think either guy will really be able to take the fight to the ground. We're probably looking at a stand-up/clinch fight and maybe Glover can land that big shot eventually.
I'm not sure how it would get to the ground, but I'd be interested to see it happen. They've both got a good submission game.