© Marc Wickert
www.knucklepit.com
Aug 29, 2006

photos © IFL

Maurice Smith started in the martial arts at age thirteen, after watching the Bruce Lee movie Chinese Connection.

Although he enjoyed other sports, such as football, baseball and gymnastics, Maurice says it was “the challenge of one-on-one competition” that attracted him to the martial arts, and lead him to commence training over the next five years in Tae-Kwon-Do, Karate, and later Wing Chun Kung-Fu.

In 1980 Smith burst onto the martial arts scene at 18 years of age, when he competed in his first amateur kickboxing tournament in Seattle, Washington.

Three years after his amateur competition debut, and with a 7-0 record under his belt, Maurice made his pro debut, fighting against the then WKC Light-Heavyweight Champion, Tony Morelli. Although Maurice lost the seven-round fight, he said he learnt a valuable lesson from the loss: “Train harder.”

So he did, and won two fights before getting the chance to face Tony again for the WKC Light- Heavyweight Title in Hawaii. It was another great fight, but with a different ending: Maurice KO’d Morelli in the seventh round with a round kick to the side of Tony’s neck.

Having won the world title, Maurice had another title shot six months later for the WKA World Heavyweight Title, against the reigning champion Travis Everett, of Mexico. After attacking his opponent with low kicks, Smith went on to defeat Travis in the ninth round, and became a two-time world champion at just twenty years of age.

“I held both titles for about twelve months, before I let the light heavyweight go and just fought at heavyweight. I held the World Heavyweight Title for almost ten years,” says Smith.

The same bait that had lured Maurice into kickboxing, and the influence of a close friend (Tommy Glanville), now enticed Smith to take up MMA: “It was the challenge. I’d already been at the top for a decade in kickboxing, so I needed another challenge.”

His first MMA fight was with Battlecade: Extreme Combat 3, against their Heavyweight World Champion Marcus ‘Conan’ Silveira. The fight lasted three rounds, before Maurice landed a kick to the side of Conan’s neck - as he had done against Morelli - resulting in Smith becoming the first legitimate kickboxer/striker to win in the MMA arena.

Smith defended his newly acquired Battlecade title, knocking the challenger out in round one with an overhand right.

Then after just two MMA bouts, Mo found himself challenging Mark ‘The Hammer’ Coleman for the heavyweight belt at UFC 14: Showdown. This was a time when grapplers ruled the ‘seven seas’ of ultimate fighting, and Smith entered the match as the underdog.

Many thought Coleman – the renowned wrestler - would just tie Maurice up in two seconds and it would be all over. However, Smith didn’t see it that way, and says he remained confident.

“Of course. That was the whole idea. I thought all I could do was learn the basics and go out there and do the best, and hopefully I should win. But I’m always confident in what I do when I go in there.”

When Maurice did take the belt, it came as no surprise to him: “To me it was just another fight, and I became champ again. The biggest deal was the fact that I was a striker coming into the fight with very little experience in this particular game. So it was a big deal for the community, but for me it was just another fight. When you look back at the bout, there was no big surprise on my face when I won.

“It was a shock to some people - particularly those who followed the grapplers, because I was known mainly as a striker. And I was the first legitimate striker, who was well known, to win a major MMA title.”

Smith later defeated the great BJJ and Vale Tudo practitioner, Marco Ruas, at UFC 21: Return of the Champions on July 16, 1999 when Marco’s corner stopped the fight during round one.

“Marco was a better striker than Mark Coleman. But Marco carried an injury into the fight, and he got injured again during the fight, so it wasn’t the win I had wanted.”

Today, Smith is involved in MMA from a different perspective - as coach of IFL’s Tiger Shark team, which he trains out of his hometown, Seattle.

Maurice, the tiger shark is one of the world’s most savage sharks. Were you pleased to have that as your team symbol?

“Actually, no. I didn’t know much about the tiger shark. I would have preferred having Wolf Pack, because they’re ones I know about. I hear a lot about the tiger sharks now. But it’s a good thing… As long as it becomes a name for the people to recognize as fighters, then that’s all that really matters to me. I mean, if I call them Wolf Pack, or the Great Danes, or the Wombats, it doesn’t really matter.”

How many fighters are there in the team?

“I have an A, B and C class: each consisting of five fighters. A and B class are pretty much the same quality of fighters, though A might be slightly better than B, and C are building up. My goal is to help them all become better fighters.”

Who are some of the main guys to watch out for in your team?

“The names that come out right now are Allan Goes (heavyweight), Brad Blackburn (welterweight), and potentially, Bristol Marunde (middleweight). Those three stand out probably the most right now.”

Will you be fighting one of the other coaches?

“If they offer for me to look into it. I think it’s pretty cool: What other sport allows the coaches to compete in the sport that they teach? If they ask me, then we’ll see what happens. If I have enough time to train for it… All this coaching takes a lot of time away from myself. I’m busy spending so much time helping the other guys prepare for their events. I’d probably have to go away from the distractions to prepare for my own fight.”

If you were to fight another coach, he’d be faced with the same scenario, wouldn’t he?

“Exactly. It would then show how good your assistant coaches are. You have your coach, your assistant coaches, and your fighters, and if I go away to train for my fight, hopefully my assistant coaches will be able to do the job I do, if I go away.”

Is there any chance you’ll be bringing Ivan Salaverry over to IFL?

“Ivan’s working with WFA right now. I had Ivan once, but WFA had a better short –term offer than IFL had at the time. Maybe another time I will look into it. We don’t know how WFA is going to be going, long term…

“I want to see WFA, K-1, UFC, and IFL all succeed and be out there so fighters have options: If one company controls everything, then a fighter doesn’t have any options. I don’t want to see any company fail, I just want to see some of them treat the fighters better.”

Where do you and the Tiger Sharks train?

“At the West Coast Fitness Center in Seattle.”

Do you have a prediction for Matt Lindland vs Jeremy Horn or for Pat Miletich vs Renzo Gracie?

“No, I don’t, because the fighters are really level right now. They’re still young in the game – as far as their ages – so none of them will be walked over. They’re all experienced and pretty healthy, so it won’t be easy to pick either fight.”

Maurice, is there anything you’d like to add?

“Hopefully the IFL will come to Australia, and you guys can jump on board and support it. I think it’s the best thing to happen to MMA, and it would be good if it happened to boxing and kickboxing, where there’d be a company that would look after the fighters. I think it’s a great opportunity that I’m involved with. I was probably six months to a year into leaving this business altogether because of the way the companies are towards the fighters.

 “IFL came in at a time when I was ready to leave and they told me they had a good offer for me, which is what I was hoping somebody would do – look after the fighters. They provide fighters with contracts, free insurance, show money, win money, bonuses for knockouts and submissions… There are a lot of opportunities for fighters. If other companies would follow suit or something like it, it would be great.”

Your sponsors?

“I’m a free agent, but IFL’s sponsors are Suzuki, Ticketmaster, Fairtex, Xbox 360, and Gladiator Memorial Coliseum.”