Maurice Smith: Dethroning A Champion

[Glove]

Maurice Smith was quite a skilled kickboxer who compiled a final record of 53-13, winning the WKC (World Kickboxing Council) world light heavyweight championship, the WKA (World Kickboxing Association) world heavyweight championship, and the ISKA (International Sport Karate Association) world heavyweight championship. With a record of 39-5, he entered his first mixed martial arts organization in Japan called Pancrase. He would also fight in the Russian led event, RINGS. Where in both organizations Smith was met with mixed results. Compiling a record of 5-7. Smith then signed with the UFC and on July 27th, 1997 at UFC 14,, Smith faced UFC heavyweight champion Mark Coleman in a title fight as his first opponent. Smith was considered to be a massive underdog for the bout.

Many MMA pundits had Coleman winning the bout rather quickly, as Coleman had rampaged thru the UFC and compiled a 6-0 record, beating Dan Severn, Don Frye, Gary Goodridge and Brian Johnston on the way to the championship. Coleman was considered the best fighter in the world with unrelenting ground pound wrestling. However Smith posed a challenge to Coleman, which was his accuracy in leg kicks. After nearly 15 minutes of attempting to damage Smith through his guard, Coleman was exhausted, and Smith won by unanimous decision. It sent shockwaves and for the first time a striker had won the UFC championship against a high powered wrestler. Smith had wrote the "blueprint" on how to compromise a wrestler using distance striking. Smith would end up retiring from MMA in 2013 with a 14-14 record.

 

[axe wound]

Big John with with the "blueprint" there for Shadface

 

[Luthien]

Young Rogan & Young Buffer

 

[Glove]

The old guard should not be forgotten, which is why i often create threads dedicated to the early days of NHB/MMA.

 

[DoctorDeelon]

People forget or just don't know what a huge upset that was. This was back in the stone age where the thought of a kickboxer beating an Olympic-caliber wrestler was completely asinine.

Coleman was merking everyone and ease in which he beat Severn put him into another stratosphere.

 

[Sparky]

We knew so little about MMA back then. I know I was shocked, but back then the sport shocked me a lot.

 

[Glove]

We knew so little about MMA back then. I know I was shocked, but back then the sport shocked me a lot.

It was considered the first "upset" in MMA.

 

[ltarian11]

Remember watching that fight in disbelief. Coleman seemed unbeatable at the time and he gassed and Smith took it to him.

 

[M.U.S.C.L.E.]

Talk about humble in victory. Maurice Smith was a class act.

Big John saved Mark Coleman. Surprisingly bad call. He wasn't even close to having a hand on the mat at the time the kick was thrown.

Also, I love when natural beats steroids.

 

[Reach4theSky]

Coleman also had cardio issues which Smith exposed. Pete Williams exposed it more in Coleman's next fight, which lead to one of the most famous ko's in ufc history..

 

[Lee_]

What we didn't know was that Smith had been training and learning the guard for a good while before the fight. In those days, strikers nearly always lost because they would get taken down and smashed on the ground without enough grappling knowledge. That's one of the reasons it is hilarious all of these Sherdog posters talking about boxers beating MMA fightrers in MMA matches or street fights- it just doesn't happen that way when you match pure styles. This was one of the early examples of cross training changing everything. The fact that Smith could survive long enough to come back was something new at the time.

 

[Glove]

What we didn't know was that Smith had been training and learning the guard for a good while before the fight. In those days, strikers nearly always lost because they would get taken down and smashed on the ground without enough grappling knowledge. That's one of the reasons it is hilarious all of these Sherdog posters talking about boxers beating MMA fightrers in MMA matches or street fights- it just doesn't happen that way when you match pure styles. This was one of the early examples of cross training changing everything. The fact that Smith could survive long enough to come back was something new at the time.

Yes you raised an important point regarding Smith's background and knowing the guard. As i pointed out in the header he had fought in Pancrase which was an organization that catered to wrestlers/shoot fighters and Smith had trained with Frank Shamrock later at the Lion's Den.

 

[The Blue Bird]

Talk about humble in victory. Maurice Smith was a class act.

Big John saved Mark Coleman. Surprisingly bad call. He wasn't even close to having a hand on the mat at the time the kick was thrown.

Also, I love when natural beats steroids.

Who says they weren’t both on the juice?

 

[M.U.S.C.L.E.]

Who says they weren’t both on the juice?

I have the blood samples in my -70C freezer.

Just going by the sniff test. Maurice Smith looks like a normal athlete. Mark Coleman, well, duh!

 

[chiefwiggum]

Maurice had a really good defensive guard. That’s what won him that fight.

 

[Billthebutcher]

Smith was also a pancrase fighter with heavy keg kicks, he had a giod understanding of mma, but always seemed a novice on defending submissions.

 

[TriangleMonkey]

He was my fav fighter during his run in the UFC

 

[Glove]

Maurice had a really good defensive guard. That’s what won him that fight.

Yes and training with the Shamrocks was also a factor.

 

[Pequeño Corey]

Coleman also had cardio issues which Smith exposed. Pete Williams exposed it more in Coleman's next fight, which lead to one of the most famous ko's in ufc history..

First headkick ko right there ladies and gents

 

[Ronin13]

Maurice is a great guy too. Fun to hang around with.