Prime Maurice Smith would have fit right into today's LHW picture.

[Ludwig von Mises]

This guy was a fighter's fighter. A UFC champion. A kickboxing champion. A Muay Thai HW champion. 90 fights between kickboxing and Muay Thai during a very competitive and talent filled era of kickboxing.

Maurice Smith wasn't the best kickboxer in the world and lost to the elite guys from that era like Hoost, Aerts, Lebanner and Bernardo but those guys were amazing and it just speaks volumes of the level Smith competed at.

Poatan would have lost to those guys too but he's still a phenomenonal kickboxer. Smith managed to get wins over guys like Michael McDonald who beat Cro Cop and he beat Jorgen Kruth who's prone kickboxing record was like 70-14.

On top having a very serious and respectable career in kickboxing Smith also had almost 30 MMA fights in an era when the sport was violent and dangerous in a different kind of way.

In those days practitioners and organizations were still in a discovery stage and they were building the plane as they were flying it which made for some wild fights with old school refereeing standards, late stoppages and brutal beat downs. Maurice was willing to jump into the fire and throwdown with legends of MMA just like he did against the legends of Kickboxing. Hespect.

Smith managed to become a UFC HW champion and get wins over guys like Mark Coleman who went on to win the Pride 2000 HWGP and Bobby Hoffman who honestly isn't talked about enough.

Hoffman finished his career with a record of 36-10 and had wins over guys like Herring, Ricco Rodriguez, Alistair Overeem , Buentello and Illykhin who submitted Randy. When Smith beat Hoffman, Hoffman record was 20-2.

These 2 wins alone are solid as fuck but on top of these 2 great wins Smith had decently close fights against Randy and Randleman who were both UFC champions in that era as well.

That's impressive considering Smith wasn't really an MMA fighter. He was just a kickboxer who came into MMA just like Poatan did to knock fools out with small gloves and developed into a decent MMA fighter in the process. He finished his career with 3 wins via submission which showed that he really tried to learn the game and evolve.

No cap Maurice Smith would fit right into today's picture at LHW. Im not saying hed dominate. Obviously there are some horrible matchups for him like Almeida and Rakic who could choose to wrestle him and dominate him on the ground.

Fortunately for Smith today's LHW division has less guys like them and much more guys like Jiri, Hill, Poatan, Jan and Reyes at the top who prefer to fight standing and shoot it out.

Perhaps Jan would try to take him down but the others wouldn't and I could see Smith being competitive with them and even surprising some of them and knocking them out.

If Smith was fighting today he would be training with a modern camp, giving him access to the modern training, strategy, preparation, sports science and recovery which would help a lot. Guys in then old days had skills but didn't prepare and strategies as well and they didn't take care of themselves as well.

They didn't put as much emphasis on recovery. They fought a lot and didn't have dedicated training camps for specific opponents where they have a perfectly timed camp and hit a peak without over training.

Even without the modern training I reckon Smith was good enough by just training training with guys like Matt Hume, Eric Paulson and Josh Barnett to surprise guys like Jamal Hill or Jiri who were both champions in this era. That's just the state of the LHW division today.

Maurice Smith did ok in combat sports. I hespect of heem.

 

[Flower2dPeople]

I remember the Alliance: Kosaka, Frank Shamrock and Smith.

Anyone remember the TK guard?

 

[Johnnny]

That's impressive considering Smith wasn't really an MMA fighter.

It's commendable that you're interested in learning about the early years of organized MMA.

In the mid 90s, very few fighters had significant training in all facets of MMA because the sport was still in its infancy. Most fighters came from specialist backgrounds like Maurice Smith.

 

[Fergelmince]

Smith was the first fighter that I remember to walk in to the octagon with a game plan based on who he was fighting. He knew if he could neutralize Coleman's GnP, and get the fight standing again, Coleman would gas soon thereafter and Smith could light him up on the feet. And he did just that.

 

[BabyBlue_Bomber]

That's impressive considering Smith wasn't really an MMA fighter. He was just a kickboxer who came into MMA just like Poatan did to knock fools out with small gloves and developed into a decent MMA fighter in the process. He finished his career with 3 wins via submission which showed that he really tried to learn the game and evolve.

At the time Smith won the UFC Title, he was already more well-rounded than a lot of guys in the UFC. He was already affiliated with Ken Shamrock's Lion's Den even during his Pancrase days, which was a legit MMA gym, and had already been training his grappling, and, like @Flower2dPeople mentioned, started Alliance with Kosaka and Frank Shamrock ...

A huge part of why he was successful against Coleman was because he was able to control Coleman off of his back with an active guard and avoid anything dangerous during the moments where Coleman finally was able to pass his guard...

For me, Smith winning the UFC title was the first guy to really show that Striking can work in high level MMA. Prior to that, pretty much all the guys winning UFC tournaments and championships came from a grappling background and strikers were getting taken down and submitted. Smith showed that if you have enough knowledge to negate a grappler's attack, kickboxing could be a viable martial art.

 

[Ludwig von Mises]

Smith was the first fighter that I remember to walk in to the octagon with a game plan based on who he was fighting. He knew if he could neutralize Coleman's GnP, and get the fight standing again, Coleman would gas soon thereafter and Smith could light him up on the feet. And he did just that.

Underrated fight and underrated display of heart.

 

[Ludwig von Mises]

Why was this thread moved to fantasy fight discussion. This thread is about an Ex UFC champion. Mods fail again.

 

[Hellowhosthat]

It's commendable that you're interested in learning about the early years of organized MMA.

In the mid 90s, very few fighters had significant training in all facets of MMA because the sport was still in its infancy. Most fighters came from specialist backgrounds like Maurice Smith.

A lot of fighters still do now, but they have more access to more established cross training than they used to.

 

[Flower2dPeople]

Why was this thread moved to fantasy fight discussion. This thread is about an Ex UFC champion. Mods fail again.

Mods are tuf noobs.