Former Oklahoma State All-American Jacobe Smith remains undefeated with win at UFC 317

Smith fought on Dana White’s Contender Series last October, winning in the second round via ground and pound. He’s 2-0 in the UFC since being signed by the promotion.

Smith wrestled at Northeastern Oklahoma for two seasons before transferring to Oklahoma State ahead of the 2016-17 season. He went 49-13 in three years, becoming an All-American (8th place at 174 pounds) in 2018. Smith finished in the Round of 16 at the 2019 tournament.

In the Summer of 2023, Smith opened up to MMA Junkie about his path to fighting. When he was 5-0 as a pro, he was pretty accurate on his trajectory.

“From right now, I have myself mapped out,” Smith said. “I’ll fight July 16 … I’ll take one more fight with Fury, and then my contract with them will be done. Then I’ll go to the Dana White’s Contender Series. So two more fights, and then I’ll be done with the small shows. I’ll be going to the UFC pretty soon.”

Smith had knee injuries while wrestling in college that he didn’t take care of until after he was done. Fighting was always in his blood though as he learned from and watched his dad.

“My dad would do tough-man tournaments around the Tulsa area, the Muskogee area,” Smith said. “He would win golden jackets and make $20,000 just fighting around where we were. I didn’t know it was as big as it was. I didn’t know about the UFC or Bellator or anything like that. I just knew I could find around where I live and make $20,000 just to fight one fight. That kind of stuck with me and I kind of wanted to do that.”

“… I didn’t really get to do my full rehab after the surgery. I had to do it all on my own and it wasn’t as fast of a recovery as it should’ve been. I should’ve been back wrestling way sooner than then, but I had to make money so I just started taking fights. I couldn’t even do a pushup, but I was taking fights just to make money because I didn’t want to get a job.”