Maurice Smith (fighter)
American kickboxer and mixed martial arts fighter
Maurice Smith (born December 13, 1961) is a retired American kickboxer and mixed martial artist. In kickboxing, he held the WKC (World Kickboxing Council) world light heavyweight championship, the WKA (World Kickboxing Association) world heavyweight championship, and the ISKA (International Sport Karate Association) world heavyweight championship, and participant in the inaugural 1993 K-1 World Grand Prix. In mixed martial arts, he held the Heavyweight championship in Battlecade Extreme Fighting and the UFC, and became a member of the UFC Hall of Fame in 2017. Smith has also competed in shoot-style professional wrestling in Japan for the Universal Wrestling Federation and Pro Wrestling Fujiwara Gumi, where he was pitted against prominent pro wrestlers in interstyle "pro wrestling vs. kickboxing" matches.
A professional competitor since 1980, Smith has formerly competed in kickboxing for the companies All Japan Enterprise and K-1, and in MMA for Pancrase, UFC, Fighting Network RINGS, PRIDE, Strikeforce, International Fight League and RFA.
Career
Raised in Seattle, Washington, Smith got into martial arts at the age of 13 after watching Bruce Lee's Chinese Connection, and having had to retreat from a fight. He trained in karate, kung fu, and taekwondo, until he found the sport of kickboxing at age 18. Smith attended West Seattle High School, where he played football and participated in gymnastics.
Kickboxing career
Smith won his first seven amateur kickboxing matches and then turned professional. His first fight was on March 4, 1982 against World Kickboxing Council's Light Heavyweight Champion Tony Morelli, who defeated him by decision after the seventh round.
The public source identifies “Maurice Smith (fighter)” as american kickboxer and mixed martial arts fighter. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Maurice, Smith and fighter.
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This entry incorporates text from “Maurice Smith (fighter)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.