Remember his fight with Conan which has been mentioned a few times.
I think that was the first time I saw someone standing kick the legs of a guy laying on his back in guard.
IRRC Mo kicked the crap out of Conan’s leg a few times while Conan was laying on his back trying to bait MO into guard/ground.
Again what a surprising win, BJJ was on what seemed like an unstoppable winning run at the time.
He was definitely a cool cat, class act.
Fucking legend!!!
But Tank was the first great striker in UFC imo.
This reminds me - anyone remember when Don Wilson planned on fighting in the UFC? He announced it on the air and they made a big deal out of it. Next thing you know, he was no longer commentating and nothing ever happened.
williepep - Until this thread and mention of Frank, I had forgotten a little Frank Shamrock moment.I was with a guy from Japan at these fights. He always talked about Frank Shamrock whenever we talked sports etc.
We spotted Frank cage side he was talking to a few people.
I yelled over to Frank that my pal here was a huge fan of his from Japan and could we get take a picture.
Frank jumped over the crowd control fence picked this guy from Japan up in sort of a side clinch, picked him up off his feet and I took a picture.
Super cool no BS just bam.
The classmate from Japan never stopped thanking me for that moment. Every time I saw him at school he mentioned it “Frank Shamrock is my hero”
Until this thread I had forgotten about how cool and accommodating Frank was.
Very cool…I also know a guy who went to a show and Frank was there just walking around, talking to fans and fighters…he has a pretty bad rep on here though for some reason
Domingo - This reminds me - anyone remember when Don Wilson planned on fighting in the UFC? He announced it on the air and they made a big deal out of it. Next thing you know, he was no longer commentating and nothing ever happened.
Yes,if I`m not mistaken it was after Marco Ruas won the tournament.
Bumping this thread after reading the Frank Shamrock vs Henderson early days grappling match.
I remembered this thread but bumped across it trying to read about Mo Smith's post fight comments after the Coleman fight.
On that thread we commented that Frank, Mo and the gang seemed to be really good at game planning fights based on opponents strenths/weaknesses.
Nobody thought Mo would be Conan either, well except everybody out in Lodi. Mo was ready and everyone out there knew it. He was cool as fuck too. A lot of people, more than just the pros who were helping him get ready, got quality striking lessons from a world class kick boxer.
His diet, as mentioned, was horrible. Back when it was chicken and rice in the young boys house, Mo had chocolate milk, strawberry milk and a boatload of candy bars. When he went back to Washington (I think) those candy bars didn’t last long.
I think he could have KO’d Coleman, but he wanted to torture him. Coleman talked a ridiculous amount of shit and thought Mo was cocky for being confident that he could win and that Coleman’s hammer fists were “girl” punches.
They were even talking Mo vs Royce (don’t know how close that deal was to going through). I remember Jerry telling Mo he could grab Royce’s gi, back off and light him up. I wanted to see that fight badly.
Mo wasn't the same after the Couture fight. He was so irritated with that decision that he intially said he wouldn't return to the UFC if John McCarthy was going to ref his fight. Right around that same time K1 signed him to several fights, so that was further incentive to leave.
Once his friend John Peretti was booking the UFC, and his K1 stint bottomed out, then he returned, but his age probably caught up with him by that point.
Mo had such a long career in kick boxing and similar years before making the move to MMA, he had quite a few MMA fights before he even joined the UFC.
He might have got into MMA late and past his prime but he went on to fight a long time. Seemed like the kind of guy who never shied away from a challenge.
Met him at an event in Seatle in the 90's where a couple teamates were fighting. Drove up in a black 911 with a kickbxr or something similar plate. Super cool guy, very down to earth and happy to give advice to people just starting out. Like many have said he wasn't young when he started, had a lot of fight miles from kickboxing and had a lot of catching up to do on the grappling side of things so it was super impressive what he did. I'll always rememeber that conan head kick KO.
mbetz1981 -Mo wasn't the same after the Couture fight. He was so irritated with that decision that he intially said he wouldn't return to the UFC if John McCarthy was going to ref his fight. Right around that same time K1 signed him to several fights, so that was further incentive to leave.
Once his friend John Peretti was booking the UFC, and his K1 stint bottomed out, then he returned, but his age probably caught up with him by that point.
After Couture beat him, the blueprint was laid out on how to beat Maurice… I remember several years watching Maurice fight and just get taken down over and over …he never seemed to improve his sprawl very much and I never understood this
big_slacker -Met him at an event in Seatle in the 90's where a couple teamates were fighting. Drove up in a black 911 with a kickbxr or something similar plate. Super cool guy, very down to earth and happy to give advice to people just starting out. Like many have said he wasn't young when he started, had a lot of fight miles from kickboxing and had a lot of catching up to do on the grappling side of things so it was super impressive what he did. I'll always rememeber that conan head kick KO.
Funny I remember that car in a promo for a fight, it may have been the event where he beat Conan.
May be the same promo or pre fight where he said his main prep or training was watching Bruce Lee and eating a lot of Snickers bars.
I think his wasn’t always gonna keep him on top. His tdd wasn’t that good and he was more of a “point” or technical KBer that needed more time to cook his opponent standing which he couldn’t do without better tdd.
ribz -Mo trolled everyone on that fight with Coleman. Said in interviews that he wouldn’t get taken down and didn’t need to learn the ground game and that Coleman punched like a bitch. After the fight he said in his interview that he trained a ton of ground game for the match, and that Coleman’s punches hurt like s bitch!
I remember Maurice did an AOL chat in the MAWN group and one of the longtime posters in that forum imp'd Coleman. He made a screen name with a capital "i" which looked like lower case "L" so that it looked like UFCole or something like that. It looked like Coleman had entered the chat. He started talking shit to Smith; like crazy shit.
Ah the good old days.
Coleman has a picture up on his Instagram that shows his leg after the fight. Nasty.
williepep -Vrill -I was there when he beat Coleman, too. I was 16. It was my first MMA event, and I was losing my mind during that fight. I was a huge fan after seeing him in Extreme Fighting and no one gave him a chance against Coleman. Honestly, I think it's still my favorite moment in my long history of being an MMA fan. I can't believe it's been over twenty years since then.
Me 3.
Pretty funny at least 3 people at the event have already popped up on this thread.
Amazing fight, amazing evening.
Was that the night that Mo thanked Helio Gracie for making us all better fighters ?
Then told Royce he was not ready when Royce first challenged him but he is now ready ?
Everyone thought Coleman was going to crush him.
No joke I told a friend I thought Mo was going to win, he made a bet with some of the guys hanging around Hammer House crew. A bunch of young guys selling Colelman t shirts etc.
I remember walking into the dressing room/area that night they had ice bags all over Coleman’s legs after all of those leg kicks from MO.
^^^^. To the comment about Coleman putting a picture of his leg on Instagram.
Read the part above ice bags…
Coleman was sitting on a table in the back/ dressing room area friends / teammates all around ice bags on legs would move up to his upper back and neck area as well
No was past his prime big time before he started fighting mma. He couldn't pull the trigger and it got worse as time went on.
Mo deserves so much more credit than he gets
bunch of people are sayinh mo ko'd coleman
it was a decision win
pete williams ko'd coleman
i remember when extreme fighting was showing mo the kickboxer about to fight conan the grappler who dominated e.f.
i expected an easy win for conan....
Mo fought almost all killers even right out of the gate.
Suzuki 2x, Fuke, Ken, Rutten, TK, Tamura, Conan all within his first ten fights. Fought them AND Coleman, Tank and Randy withing his first fifteen fights.