Jake Shields on short-arming coffee at UFC 202 presser: ‘I got my target,’ Dillon Danis

In just two week’s time, on May 14th, at the Roseland Theater in Portland, Oregon, Jake Shields is going to take on Dillon Danis in a Submission Underground grappling match. Danis has been on the receiving end of a sharp rise to notoriety, as a member of Conor McGregor’s training team, and as a result (along with his serious BJJ pedigree) is set for a Bellator debut later this year.

He’s also spent the last year creating a number of feuds with various MMA talents, attempting to lure them into grappling competition against him.

And while Danis has taken his shots at the likes of Jon Jones and Rory MacDonald, in his upcoming bout with Jake Shields it seems that Shields made the first hostile move. Or at least that’s what the former Strikeforce champion and longtime Skrap Pack talent claims.

i have never witnessed so much athleticism in a single man #SequoyahShields

A post shared by jefe (@dillondanis) on Apr 10, 2017 at 9:00am PDT

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Fans who kept a close eye on the now-infamous UFC 202 presser brawl (that saw Conor McGregor and Nate Diaz hit with hefty fines for bottle throwing) may remember Jake Shields short arming a cup of coffee. As a core part of the Diaz crew, Shields picked up what appeared to be a Starbucks cup and tossed it well short of the stage, and intended target McGregor. But apparently that wasn’t the case at all, as Shields now says he hit exactly what he aimed for.

“I think Dillon’s just mad that I doused him with coffee,” Shields said, speaking of Danis’ Instagram post about his throw, “cause I threw the cup lightly cause Dillon’s really close to me and I got my target. So he’s little butthurt about that.”

“Oh I got my target,” Shields continued. “I would have thrown it harder if I was trying not to get him, but Dillon was right there, so that’s who I was aiming for. I got him and a couple of Conor’s guys. Their shirts had coffee all over them. So I’ll see if I can find some pictures of him getting hit since he’s talking shit. He had coffee all over him. It was pretty funny. So yeah, I think he’s just mad that I got him good with the coffee. I know I saw him talking shit to Nate and I was like, “oh, fuck this,” and I chucked it at him.”

“At the presser – yeah, I’m used to fighting and shit-talking, so it ain’t gonna rattle me up.”

“It’s funny, a lot of people were making fun and were talking shit on that post. They don’t realize, if you throw a full cup of coffee, if you chuck it like a baseball, that’s gonna fly open and so you’re not gonna get anything. So you gotta kind of lob it slowly so you hit your target – which I did perfectly.”

As for how Shields sees the grappling match playing out? If Shields seems absolutely confident in his throwing abilities, he’s notably more measured about how a potential bout against Danis may go.

“Well Dillon is a guy that will go for it,” Shields explained, when asked about how he sees the match going. “So I don’t expect him to stall, which is nice. So I think we’re just both going to go out there and hunt for submissions right away. There’s no points, so I see us both going straight at it and hopefully one of us will be submitted – well, not one of us, hopefully I’ll submit him in regulation time and not have the overtime because the overtime is a little weird. You know, you start in the armbar and back, and that’s a position I think is a little bit shitty. So hopefully we don’t go in that. Hopefully I get a submission in the regulation time period.”

Shields vs. Danis is expected to headline a main card that includes bouts between Paulo Miyao & Urijah Faber, Michael Perez & Nathan Orchard, and John Combs & Gilbert Burns.

Tito Oritz regrets wearing ‘Dana’s My B—’ t-shirt, says he’s done beefing with White

Dana White and Tito Ortiz’s public relationship has been a pretty bitter one, going all the way back to 2001, when White dropped managing Ortiz to take over as president of the UFC. The former business partners pretty quickly became embittered rivals, and almost ended up meeting in the boxing ring back in 2007.

Still, for 15 years, Ortiz was a fixture in the former Zuffa organization. Even well after his championship title days were over, he was a cornerstone of UFC PPV cards – headlining another 5 of them without a title on the line. Win or lose, Ortiz’s public presence in the sport loomed large.

He left the promotion in 2012, in an initial retirement bid, following his second loss to Forrest Griffin, and temporarily set up shop as a manager for other fighters. But, retirement was short lived, and Ortiz soon ended up in Bellator and back in the cage. From talent, to manager, to working with a UFC rival, none of these moves helped rebuild his relationship with Dana White. However, time heals all wounds, and it seems that Ortiz’s latest (and seemingly more permanent) decision to hang up his gloves may also have put his relationship with the UFC president back on track.

“I’m very thankful to Bellator,” Ortiz said, speaking of his retirement in a recent interview with MMA Fighting. “Scott Coker’s been amazing to work with. It’s kind of weird, because after it was all over I got a text from [UFC president] Dana [White] saying congratulations. Me and Dana haven’t really been eye-to-eye for a long time, but recently we’ve been texting back and forth. I don’t know, man. Life’s too short. Too short to hate. I’ve done a few things in my career that I regret towards him. Maybe wearing a tee shirt that says ‘Dana’s My Bitch’ is one of them.”
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“Yeah, I’d have to say yes [we did bury the hatchet],” Ortiz continued, when asked if his feud with White was done. “We briefly spoke, and it seemed like the old Dana. I guess we kind of both said life is too short to hate as much as we have. It’s one of those things man. I’ve learned, why waste my time with hating somebody when I can just forget about it and let life go on? I’ve done that.”

Ortiz also spoke about his upcoming plans, including “shooting a film with Tyler Perry” (Boo 2! A Madea Halloween), and “playing some poker with Poker Stars.” He also plans on having another surgery on his notoriously damaged neck. Whatever the future holds, it doesn’t sound like a return to MMA competition is going to be part of it, but with fighters, you never know.

Ronda Rousey’s judo coach thinks MMA isn’t ‘what she wants in this time of her life’

The latest news coming from the Ronda Rousey camp is that she’s engaged to be married. She and UFC heavyweight Travis Browne recently, publicly announced their plans to tie the knot at some point in the near future. But what about fighting?

The former UFC women’s bantamweight champion as been more or less MIA since losing getting KO’d by Amanda Nunes back in December of 2016 at UFC 207. That loss was her first fight in over a year, since losing her title to Holly Holm in 2015. Those two fights, represented the first losses of Rousey’s pro-career. Could it be that they’ll also be the last ones?

Rousey’s judo coach Justin Flores recently spoke to Sub Radio about a potential return to MMA for Ronda, and why it’s something he doesn’t sound like he’s banking on.

“Not that I don’t think that she can be the best, it’s just, I just don’t know if her body and her mind at this stage in her life, if that’s what’s right for her.”

“Oh man, there’s a lot of layers to that,” Flores said, when asked about a potential Ronda Rousey return to MMA. “Personally, from what I… I mean, I would support her, but personally I don’t think it’s in the cards. I don’t think that’s what she wants in this time of her life. I mean, I’m not discounting anything. Maybe later. But I just don’t see that being something she wants to jump into and focus full force to be the best. Because if she’s gonna do anything, from what I know about her, she’s gonna do it to be the best. And not that I don’t think that she can be the best, it’s just, I just don’t know if her body and her mind at this stage in her life, if that’s what’s right for her.

“She’s competed her whole life. Her whole life has been about being the best, and I just think personally, the best thing is for her to kind of be okay with herself not as a fighter. So I love her to death, dude. I just know the pain she’s gone through physically, doing this forever, multiple surgeries, concussions, broken bones, weight cutting. All those things add up and take its toll, and it’s accumulative. So being 30 years old now and doing this since you were eight years old non-stop, I mean, the mileage you’ve put on your body and that she’s put on her body, I just don’t think if she wants to, you know, live a long happy life and raise kids with Travis, which I know that’s the future, I just don’t think that’s something I feel like would be in her best interests.”

Flores also talked a bit about one of the points among fans and pundits around any potential Ronda Rousey return: Should she change up her coaching and work with someone other than Edmond Tarverdyan?

“She is really competitive, so she would drill non-stop and try and do what she could do to become the best striker that she could be.”

“Well, I mean, MMA is primarily I would have to say – this is my perspective – these days is more of a striking art,” Flores said when asked about critique of Rousey’s training with Tarverdyan. “It’s mixed martial arts, but I think the strikers have closed that gap from the early days where you have your Royce Gracies and your big high-level grapplers that have evolved to being the best. And now I think some of these strikers have been able to kind of take over a little bit more, from what I see, just from what I gauged. And I think her falling in love with striking and boxing and footwork and timing and trying to try and become the best striker she could be, she entrenched herself fully. And she is really competitive, so she would drill non-stop and try and do what she could do to become the best striker that she could be.

“And I kind of understand Edmond’s role in how he tried to provide that for her, and my job was kind of to provide that balance to say, ‘hey, okay, we’re doing great here with the striking, but let’s get back to what kind of got her here’. And sometimes it would be tough to balance that, you know, cause I’m down here in San Diego, she’s training in LA. So it would be kind of tough to go up there every day and make sure she was getting that in. So I’d have to kind of trust Edmond to make sure those things were happening while I wasn’t there as well with Martin. And from everything I know, is her and Martin would train on those off days. So she was still being able to get a lot of the grappling that she needed, it was just what she chose to do on fight night. And those are, as we all saw, it didn’t work out so well. I’m not blaming anyone here, it’s just the way the fight game is. So she had a lot of great wins and a few bad ones there. So it’s just a hard thing to see to someone you really love and you’ve known your whole life for it to end like that. I mean, it’s kind of hard to elaborate past a certain point, just because I respect all the people involved and I don’t want to do anyone any harm.”

In the meantime, if you just can’t wait to see Rousey on your TV again, she’s set for a guest starring role on NBC’s crime drama Blindspot this Wednesday, May 3rd. She’s also been reported for several upcoming film roles, including a Road House remake and Mile 22 with Mark Wahlberg and Iko Uwais, although there have been few updates on her involvement in either project lately.

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Video: Rousey’s fight scene from ‘Blindspot’ episode

Rousey movie project on hold amid questions about her acting chops

The MMA Depressed-us: Melendez vs. Ayoki

The UFC and other major MMA promotions are on holiday this week, which means the MMA Depressed-us is back on the job. This time around we’re watching a forgotten battle of elite lightweights in Strikeforce, as Gilbert Melendez defended his title against Shinya Aoki. But first, to start the show, we’re watching the heavyweight rematch nobody wanted or needed with Travis Browne vs. Fabricio Werdum 2 (the UFC 203 fight), and to balance things out in the middle a Kazushi Sakuraba less-than-classic Pride fight against Gilles Arsene.

All bouts can be found on Fight Pass. Just sync them up to our countdowns to follow along. And as always, if you enjoyed the show, give us a “like” over on YouTube. Maybe even subscribe to our channel, MMANATIONDOTCOM. That way you’ll always be among the first to get the latest BE shows, interviews, and analysis.

If you just want the audio you can find our podcasts on SoundCloud and iTunes.

Browne vs. Werdum 2 (restart): 15:30
Kazushi Sakuraba vs. Gilles Arsene: 39:49
Gilbert Melendez vs. Shinya Aoki: 1:05:44

Video: Carla Esparza obliges fan who wants to get punched in the face

Every now and then someone out there gets the idea that they want to be punched in the face by a professional fighter. Nobody knows where the urge comes from or why it occurs, but it happens, often on video. Carla Esparza is the latest fighter to receive such an offer, and take the seemingly inebriated fan up on it.

The former UFC strawweight champion posted a video on her Twitter page recently, going with the body-head combo, straight to the this guy’s jaw. You can check it out below.

He signed the waiver… he said hit him a “2 out of 10″& I obliged #havingfun #hesaiditwasok #snm #lol #helikedit #waiver #heskindacute pic.twitter.com/sXI5ZDUDVN

— Carla Esparza (@CarlaEsparza1) April 22, 2017

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It doesn’t quite have the same sting to it as Joanna Jedrzejczyk or Mark Hunt taking their respective fans up on the same offer.

Or one of the several people who seem to be willing to let Alistair Overeem hit them over the years:

And of course, the poor soul that never even volunteered at all.

Esparza is coming off a split decision loss to Randa Markos at UFC Fight Night Lewis vs. Browne back in February. She’s currently scheduled to face Ukrainian fighter Maryna Moroz at UFC Oklahoma City in June.

Dillashaw: KO tape money should go to charity ‘for kids without fathers so they don’t grow up to act like Cody’

The Cody Garbrandt/T.J. Dillashaw feud has been simmering for a while now. Ever since Garbrandt became a prominent figure for Team Alpha Male (TAM) in the UFC, he’s become one of the chief mouthpieces in the ongoing war of words with their former team-member and former UFC champion. But, if a feud between the two men has been simmering for months, it seems that it’s only finally starting to boil.

In part that’s down to the most recent season of the Ultimate Fighter. Dillashaw and Garbrandt are opposing coaches on the show, and the renewed proximity has already led to at least one on-screen altercation. The show is done filming, but will be playing out on TV over the next few weeks. And the result is more day-to-day fuel to feed their animosity.

Outside of the TAM vs. Ludwig history, the ongoing story-line in the Dillashaw-Garbrandt beef stems from an as-yet-unreleased video in Garbrandt’s possession showing the current UFC bantamweight champion KO-ing Dillashaw in a past sparring session. Garbrandt recently made an offer to Dillashaw detailing his plans to sell the tape to the highest bidder.

“Hey Dillashaw, lets put an end to all of this.” Garbrandt said in a video message on Instagram. “I’m going to go out and get as much money as I can from the video of me knocking you out. How about you pick a charity that you want to support and I’ll donate 100% of the proceeds to that charity.”

In a recent interview on UFC Unfiltered with Matt Serra and Jim Norton, Dillashaw responded to Garbrandt’s offer. Fair to say, he isn’t very impressed with his rival’s generosity (transcript via MMA Fighting).

“I told him to go for it. Release it, because I, for one, don’t believe it and even if he did, I agree with Matt, I think it’s petty. I think they’re reaching. It’s something like, we put this time and sweat and tears into the gym, and he’s got this one clip of him doing good. What about the 70% of the time that I was doing awesome that [Justin] Buchholz has footage of? You know what, I could care less what happened then. I get to make, on pay-per-view, some film of me beating Cody’s ass that the world’s going to see and I’m going to make a lot more than selling it to TMZ. So they can do whatever they want with the practice room because we all know how it went down. So I could care less. Release the footage. The charity should be something for kids without fathers so they don’t grow up to act like Cody.”

Those last lines are a dig at Garbrandt’s well-publicized childhood growing up without his biological father, and the influence that had on his life. It’s a sore spot that Dominic Cruz used to needle Garbrandt ahead of their fight as well. When an opponent is working to sell potentially humiliating videos to the highest bidder, it seems everything becomes fair game.

Garbrandt vs. Dillashaw is set to take place at UFC 213 on July 8th in Las Vegas, Nevada. The fight will likely serve as the main or co-main event for the capping PPV card for the UFC’s International Fight Week. Bouts between Fabricio Werdum & Alistair OVereem and Robbie Lawler & Donald Cerrone have also been planned for the event.

Following drug test problems, Frank Mir doesn’t feel the same about the UFC

It’s no secret that things have changed at the UFC lately. From the big, obvious things like ownership, sponsor opportunities, and drug testing policies, to the more subtle things like matchmaking, contract negotiations, and weigh-ins. For fighters, the ways they find themselves running up against these changes can come as a surprise.

Not long ago, Frank Mir was one of the UFC’s perennial company men. Signed to the promotion as a 2-0 22-year-old back in 2001, Mir has been a part of the ZUFFA-WME/IMG family ever since. He’s been heavyweight champion, interim champion, and a title contender year after year. Things haven’t been going as well lately, with a 2-6 record in the past 5 years, but that’s not why Mir is feeling less than enthusiastic about his relationship with the world’s largest MMA organization.

Back in 2016, Mir took a KO loss to Mark Hunt, and along with that loss came the news that he’d failed a USADA drug test. A little more than a year later, Mir is still fighting to clear his name, and he feels that the UFC isn’t doing much to help him (transcript via MMA Fighting).

“My feelings have been hurt, yes,” Mir said. “If that’s what you’re asking. I don’t feel the same about the company as I felt years ago. And I’m seeing that even with some of the ways they’re handling things the way they handle them now. There’s been several times where I’m like, ‘Wow, if Lorenzo was still there at the office, if Dana was still in full control and not just a minority shareholder, would that have ever happened?’ I don’t know about that.

“I don’t know if this is the same company that I started with 15 years ago.”

Mir claims to have spent $30,000 having the supplements he was taking tested, from around his failed drug test. But recent USADA re-analysis of another previous test (initially deemed clean) came back with signs of metabolites that could have been in his system stretching from when he was on TRT (legal under UFC policy at the time) back in 2014. The whole thing seems to have left him at a loss.

“Now do I spend x amount of money more going after the supplements I took three years ago now … or do I just ride out the rest of the suspension?” Mir said. “I don’t know. It just doesn’t sit well with me.”

Mir is currently in the middle of his two-year USADA suspension from MMA competition, which would see him potentially return to action in spring of 2018. Until then it seems he’ll likely continue to be stuck in limbo, faced with a changing relationship between fighter and promotion.

Chris Weidman on UFC 210 debacle: ‘What happened in there was chaos and not right’

While Daniel Cormier racked up another title defense and Anthony Johnson decided to hang up the gloves, one of the most enthralling narratives to come out of the UFC’s trip to Buffalo, NY had nothing to do with the main event. In the co-main bout, former middleweight champion Chris Weidman took on top contender Gegard Mousasi. The bout started with Weidman in control, but a knee from Mousasi in round 2 upended the whole affair and put ‘The All American’ on the receiving end of his 3rd straight loss.

Well, maybe.

The knee was initially ruled an illegal strike by the referee, and Weidman was given time to recover. Upon further review, the strike was deemed legal. And Weidman, unable to answer the ringside physician’s questions correctly, was deemed unfit to continue. None of that is sitting well with the Serra-Longo fighter, who told the MMA Hour recently, that his team is appealing the loss and hoping to end up with a rematch out of it (transcript via MMA Mania):

“We sent in the appeal. It’s really on my managers, my trust is in them. They came up with something to send over, I looked it over, as did my wife. They sent it to New York and I think they might’ve got a reply. As for me and my hopes, to win an appeal in New York, especially it being so fresh, they are going to fight this thing to the death. At the end of the day, it doesn’t make a huge difference to me personally. I know what happened in there was chaos and not right and I was on the losing end of it. It sucks for a lot of reasons, but at the end of the day, I can’t control any of it and it’s over. I’ll just look to the future. Whether they make it a no contest or not, I’m not focused on it. I’ll let my management team deal with that and hopefully the right thing happens. I am not putting much time and effort into thinking about that. At the end of the day, it was a sucky situation that I was a part of and it wasn’t what I wanted to happen and I don’t think Mousasi wanted that to happen.”
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“I think I would’ve went on to dominate Mousasi and even finish him. Now, this is all my opinion and you can argue this back-and-forth and we will never know for that event. But, I do want a rematch because I felt I was dominating the fight. Even in the second round when he came forward and I was doing the backpedaling and he was punching. He didn’t land anything and I was very coherent and I wasn’t rocked. The rest of the round, I mounted him and took his back. I know Mousasi wasn’t happy with the result, judging by him pulling down his flag and telling his coaches to stop the celebration. I know his tune changed at the press conference and he was coached into the way he was talking at that point. But his instincts were right and as a fighter you don’t want to win that way. It was a debacle.”

And while it seems unlikely that Weidman will get the decision itself overturned (something most commissions are loathe to do), he may get his rematch. With Michael Bisping vs. GSP continuing to stall the middleweight title picture, elite talent at 185 is going to have to find ways to stay busy. Of course, with Mousasi having completed his UFC contract off his UFC 210 win, staying busy might just mean going somewhere else.

Dodson frustrated by lack of fights: ‘No one wants to take a fight with somebody that’s mentally insane’

Is it the fighter? Is it the division? Or is it just the promotion in general? One way or another, John Dodson is having trouble getting fights. The UFC bantamweight is coming off a technical (if somewhat lackluster) decision win over Eddie Wineland at UFC Nashville last weekend, and from the sound of things, the first thought on his mind is how to get back in the cage as quickly as possible.

Over the course of his 5+ years with the world’s largest MMA promotion, Dodson has never fought more than twice in any calendar year. But, to hear him tell it, that’s not for lack of trying. Dodson told the assembled media after his latest win, that he’s been a constant voice in Sean Shelby’s ear, trying to get fights (transcript via MMA Fighting).

“When I put people to sleep, no one wants to fight me,” Dodson said after the bout. “When I fight intelligently, no one still wants to fight me. I don’t know what they want me to do. If fighters want to sit there and see that they have a fair chance, just step into the octagon, that’s the fair chance right there. Once we sign on the dotted line, that’s the opportunity for you to train for me and know that you have to be ready. That’s all I want, people to say yes. I’ve been trying to fight every single month and everybody still says no. . .”

“I’ve been telling Sean [Shelby], ‘Sean, why won’t you let me fight anybody?’ and he’s like, ‘No.’ I even tried fighting Tony Ferguson when Khabib didn’t make weight. I was like, ‘I’m flying in Dana. I’m weighing 156. I’ll make weight right now.’ Granted, I got called an idiot, but I was willing to take the fight. Somebody had to say yes. If people in my higher weight class are still gonna tell me no, I guess I’m just a terrorizer in every weight class. I am that nightmare that they’re just gonna be piling up on people.”

Dodson specifically called out Aljamain Sterling, who he says he’s tried to get booked for a fight with him three times, and Raphael Assuncao as well. Eventually however, it sounds like he’s got a strong theory as to why he’s not getting the bouts he wants.

“No one wants to take a fight with somebody that’s mentally insane. I am the most happiest killer that we have on this roster. I don’t go out there telling everybody I’ll be their Nightmare, their Dream, or a Lionheart. I just go out there and do it with a smile because I am the Agent of Chaos and I will ruin everybody’s order.”

Even if Dodson’s claims about getting turned down for bouts doesn’t necessarily paint a complete picture, the UFC’s woes in keeping it’s bantamweight division moving are long standing. Back when Dominick Cruz, Raphael Assuncao, and Michael McDonald were all getting hit with extended injury layoffs, some stagnation around the top 15 was to be expected. But, now with 11 of the divisions top fighters un-booked (and 8 of those fighters coming off wins) there are few good excuses to keep Dodson from getting the quick turnaround he wants.

UFC announces induction of Maurice Smith to Hall of Fame

The thing about sports history is, it’s not all about records. That’s a point that’s obvious enough when said. But in the world of professional athletics, where players are almost always reduced to a set of statistics and achievements, its something people tend to forget. Enter Maurice Smith.

The UFC announced, during their Nashville Fight Night broadcast, that they would be inducting Smith into the promotion’s Hall of Fame at the 2017 ceremony in Las Vegas during International Fight Week. To look at his career on paper, it’s an odd induction. While Smith carved out his spot in history by winning the newly created UFC heavyweight title from then champion Mark Coleman back at UFC 14 in 1997 (Coleman himself having only won the belt a few months earlier), his overall record of 14-14 with just one title defense, doesn’t scream “All Time Great.”

That misses a broader picture of the sport, however, which Smith’s achievement at the time helped paint. While Bas Rutten was having success with Pancrase in Japan, on the state-side MMA front, a no holds barred hierarchy had been firmly established: Wrestlers and grapplers were at the top, strikers were at the bottom. Mark Coleman, a former Olympic wrestler, charged into his MMA career and the UFC, going 6-0 over the course of three events, with all of his wins coming by stoppage. His run to the title had turned him into a seemingly unbeatable figure in American MMA. Smith changed all that.

Training with Frank Shamrock at the Lions Den, Smith learned to adapt his professional kickboxing more firmly to mixed martial arts (something he’d struggled with early in his move to NHB). As T.P. Grant put it in his exceptional MMA Origins: Revenge of the Striker article:

“Frank helped Smith learn the basics of grappling, with the goal being to survive on the ground and then use his superior striking skills. Smith would test out his new skills in a North American competitor to the UFC, Battlecade Extreme Fighting, and in a Heavyweight title fight against Carlson Gracie fighter Conan Silveira. Nearly everyone thought Silveira would clearly devour the kickboxer. Strikers did not defeat grapplers in this sport, it was known.

“But Smith turned the tables on Silveira. He survived from the bottom position and actually reversed the Carlson Gracie black belt. In the second round, Smith landed a head kick that ended the fight. Ken had once told Smith that he wasn’t a fighter, rather he was a specialized fighter, and Smith had embraced his strength and maximized it with some help from Frank. It was with that embracing that he became the first kickboxer to beat a Brazilian Jiu Jitsu black belt in American MMA.”

That wasn’t the only point where Smith became an MMA innovator, though. In a time where most MMA fight training revolved between hard sparring and weight lifting (and maybe a few chemical supplements) Smith was one of the few notable talents to invest heavily in conditioning. Against Coleman, that was his silver bullet. After spending most of regulation time surviving off his back, Smith turned the tables on the severely depleted champ, landing enough offense to win a decision from the judges.

Smith picked up wins over Tank Abbott, Marco Ruas, and Branko Cikatic in the years following his win over Coleman. His win over Abbott netted him his only title defense, as he lost the belt in December of ‘97 to a new breed of wrestle-boxer in Randy Couture. Still, even if you reduce Smith’s MMA career to just that year, from October 1996 when he beat Marcus Silveira to October 1997 when he beat Tank Abbott, Smith’s contributions to the development of MMA are worth memorializing.

Smith will be entered into the Pioneer wing of the UFC’s hall of fame (dedicated to fighters who turned pro before the adoption of MMA’s current unified rules in ‘00). The ceremony is scheduled for July 6th. Urijah Faber is also set to be inducted.