Harrisburg’s Jeff Smith has tried out for The Ultimate Fighter twice, and twice he has gotten all the way through, only to not receive a call-back. Maybe they’re looking for a crazed dude who will trash the TUF house, but Smith says he’s not that guy.
Instead, Smith, who’s 6-1 as a lightweight pro right now, said he wants to improve his record to at least 10-1 or more, so that the UFC will have a very difficult time not accepting him the next time around. “I’m just going to keep trying to rack up wins and get called up,” he said.
Smith will get a chance to notch another win on his belt tomorrow night in Lancaster, as he main-events Fight Night in the Cage II at the Lancaster Host Resort. Smith is taking on the 7-2 Brian “Vicious” VanHoven, who hails from Wenatchee, WA.
With a high school wrestling background, Smith calls himself a “catch wrestler” — so think Kazushi Sakuraba or Josh Barnett. Catch wrestling is a groundfighting style that deals mainly with submissions from the top, and Smith has doen just that, using toe-holds, north-south chokes and armbars to win. Nearly all of his wins have come by submission, hence his nickname, “The Submission Technician.”
A longtime fighter at Blackman MMA in Harrisburg, Smith said he has watched some tape on VanHoven, calling him a tough fighter. “I think he’s probably going to try to keep it standing … I think he’s probably going to work the clinch,” Smith said. However, Smith said he’s been working real hard on that aspect of his game, putting time in with boxing coach Manny Rose. He also credits Hanover Academy of MMA’s Bob Bitner with showing him some great kicks.
Smith also said he’s not going to go into the fight with a set game-plan, because, he’s seen that with some fighters, “when the game plan goes wrong, they’re screwed.”
To learn more about Fight in the Cage II, click here. To learn more about Blackman MMA, click here.
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