‘I’m confident I’m going to be a UFC fighter & one of the best in the world’
“I’M JUST a normal kid from Halifax.”
George Smith could be on the verge of taking the mixed martial arts world by storm.
The 25-year-old, from Shelf, has the high-profile Ultimate Fighting Championship in his sights, and if his career so far is anything to go by, he won’t stop until he gets there.
“I’ve always done martial arts, my grandad and my dad got me into it,” says the former Hipperholme and Lightcliffe High School pupil.
“My family have always been very supportive of me and with me every step of the way.
“I was quite a bad kid to be honest, I had loads of energy and needed a sport to give me that discipline.
“I got taken to judo class in Pellon when I was really young and I got good at it.
“I had my first MMA fight when I was 16 but concentrated on judo until I was about 20.
“I’ve always been very disciplined. Although I didn’t pay attention in school particularly, because I didn’t really enjoy it, I was always paying attention in sports, always turning up.
“I wasn’t always the most talented but I just kept going.”
Smith moved away to live in Walsall to train with the Great Britain Judo Team aged 17, winning the national championships as a junior and becoming one of the top seniors in the country at under 21 level.
But, aged 20, he fell out of love with the sport, came back to Halifax and started training with Team Quannum in Huddersfield.
“When I came back, I was working in retail and in a metal breaking factory, just to fund training full-time,” he says.
“I knew I was going to be a professional fighter. I was training twice a day, as well as working.
“One of the coaches knew that place couldn’t give me the full-time training I needed, so I moved to SBG Manchester, which is one of the best gyms in the country with the best coaching and some of the best fighters.”
Smith held two titles as an amateur MMA fighter, finishing with a record of 11 wins and one defeat.
He won the prestigious Cage Warrior Amateur
Championship and the Almighty Fighting Championship amateur belt before turning pro in July 2018.
“I turned pro because I was ranked number one in the UK and Ireland so there was nothing else to beat at the time,” he says.
“I turned pro with a lot of talk around me, a lot of people were expecting big things from me, so I had a lot of pressure.”
Smith lost his pro debut “a disaster of a night, I fought completely out of character” – but went on a five-fight win streak last year, including four first round finishes.
He is signed to Cage Warriors on a five-fight deal, with his last fight coming on the company’s first ever Manchester card, which Smith won in the first round.
Smith is ranked in the top 30 of UK pros but thinks he’s one fight off a world title shot, and hopes to get signed to UFC, the global MMA event, after his next few fights. “My main goal is to keep winning fights, but to bring the big world title fights and UFC fights to Yorkshire,” he says.
“Yorkshire’s not had a UFC show but I want to bring it to Leeds. The arena, or as a Leeds fan, to Elland Road.
“That’s a big dream of mine.”
Smith says he has the inner drive and determination to reach the top in his sport, and hopes to inspire others along the way.
“With every fibre of my being, I’m confident I’m going to be a UFC fighter, and one of the best in the world,” he says.
“Nobody outworks me.
That’s one thing I pride myself on, I always train harder than everyone, I’m more disciplined than anyone, so I’m confident I can do it.
“I’m a couple of fights off solidifying myself as Europe’s best middleweight, but I want to push on then and secure a place in the 10 and be number one in the world.
“I am just a normal kid from Halifax, from a normal family.
“I want to inspire young kids, not even in MMA but just to be disciplined in something that you enjoy, and to send out a message that you can succeed in whatever you want to do.
“Seeing young Halifax lads or girls following their dreams would be a nice thing if I could do anything to help them.”