Maurice Smith aka “Mol” is a professional mixed martial artist born in Seattle, Washington United States on Dec 13, 1961. He has formerly competed in kickboxing for the companies All Japan Enterprise and K-1, as well as mixed martial arts in Ultimate Fighting Championship, Pancrase, RINGS, PRIDE, Strikeforce, International Fight League and RFA.
Born and raised in Seattle, Smith got into martial arts at the age of 13 with the influence of Bruce Lee. He once ran away from a fight and he did not like the feeling. Initially, he started working with the Martial Arts of karate, taekwondo and wing chun, and when he was 18, he found kickboxing and the rest is history.
| Born | 13 Dec 1961 |
| Nationality |
United States
|
| Nickname | Mol |
Smith debuted for the mixed martial arts promotion company Pancrase in 1993. His first fight was against Suzuki which is scheduled to be a 5 round bout. Unfortunately, Suzuki took him down on the third round giving Smith his first loss under the new organization.
July 1997 would be a memorable day for Smith. He faced UFC Heavyweight Champion Mark Coleman in a title fight. No one expected Smith to win as he was the underdog, but he shocked the mixed martial arts world with a unanimous decision victory to win the UFC Heavyweight Championship.
Smith was able to successfully defend his belt against David “Tank” Abbott but still lost his belt to MMA legend Randy Couture in a very close fight.
Smith would return to MMA twice, one in 2007 and the other is 2012. His last fight was against Matt Kovacs at Cage Warrior Combat (CWC) in the heavyweight division which he lost through a unanimous decision.
