Houston – Undefeated welterweight Jacobe Smith looks forward to his third UFC victory when he takes on Josiah Harrell this Saturday at UFC Houston.
Smith (11-0) was originally shown a yellow card Seok Hyeon Kowho had to leave the event due to a rib injury. Despite the change of opponents, preferring the existing fighter, “Cobe” takes his opponent no less seriously.
“I feel like at this point in my career, every fight is, if you’re in it, the seriousness is, take this moment, this is the moment,” Smith told media including Cageside Press during Wednesday’s UFC Houston media day, adding, “But I haven’t felt the feeling of a championship fight. Beyond that, everything else is, if I’m in it, I’m in it, and I take this guy as seriously as I can because he’s the best in the world right now.” He’s holding me back, I have to get through him to take a step after him. So we take it very seriously.’
Smith was an NJCAA national champion at Northeastern Oklahoma A&M, and later an NCAA Division I All-American wrestler. It takes something special to overshadow the feeling of his wrestling success, he noted.
“I would say that title is necessary to beat that feeling just for the fact that I didn’t get into this fight game to win a title. I got into the fight game to give my family opportunities, to break the curses that we’ve had in the past,” said Smith.
He explained what those curses are, saying it was “just the typical, you know, growing up in the ghetto. The struggle. Mom still lives in the Section 8 apartments. Food stamps, that kind of thing.”
“I was from there growing up, and I’m at the point where I’ve never been able to use food stamps as an adult because I’m pretty well taken care of with the job I have and with my wife,” Smith continued. “But I’m trying to get to the point where I can provide jobs for my family and put them in positions where they don’t have to respond to Section 8 or the government, and this and that. Because it’s a tough situation to be in that your whole life, and it’s hard to get out of it on your own.”
Watch Jacobe Smith’s full UFC Houston media day appearance above.
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