Maurice Smith to make his ring return on March 30 – UFC news
Maurice Smith, former UFC heavyweight champion, will be making his ring return on March 30 at the Viaero Event Center in Kearney, Neb.
He will be featuring in the second bout of the Resurrection Fighting Alliance 2 event.
Maurice, who is 50, will once again enter the ring in the event that is being headlined by Houston Alexander vs. Gilbert Yvel bout.
Smith made his career start in 1993 to fight under the Pancrase banner. He started as an MMA specialist but later made his way to the UFC. He defeated Mark Coleman at UFC 14 to grab the heavyweight title of the promotion. Later on, Smith fought ‘Tank’ Abbott
at UFC 15 and successfully defended his title. However, Randy Couture snatched it from him at UFC Japan.
Smith also took part in the inaugural K-1 World Grand Prix, which was held in 1993. Since his career in the MMA did not pick up well, he chose UFC as his next destination. His career’s acme was when he defeated Coleman, as the latter was an unbeaten fighter
back then.
After the belt was taken from him by Couture, he participated in a couple of other fights for some well-known organizations such as Pride, Rings and K-1, and of course the UFC. From 2007 to 2008, Smith fought 3 bouts out of which he won 2 and lost 1. He
won the fight in Strikeforce and the IFL.
As of now, Maurice Smith is all ready to make his comeback after 4 years. He is among the best in the business, even though his name has lost its shine. Speculations are that at this age Smith does not have anything much to offer to the fans.
However, with his portfolio in mind, one can say that he can still surprise a hand full of viewers if not all. What is worse is the fact that Smith’s opponent is quite a good fighter which means Smith’s chance of taking the victory are low. Since we do not
know how well he can fight now, there is hardly anything to say about his fighting skills.
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