Soldier marches to 'Ultimate Fighter' title
By Larry Shaughnessy
It should come as no surprise that U.S. Army soldiers can fight.
But Staff Sgt. Colton Smith can say he's the Army's ultimate fighter.
Smith, who is based at Fort Hood, won the season 16 finale of "The Ultimate Fighter" on national TV last weekend by beating Canadian Mike Ricci in three five-minute rounds of mixed martial arts (MMA).
"It's an amazing feeling of accomplishment," Smith said in a story posted on Fort Hood's website.
Ultimate Fighter is the world's largest promoter of MMA events and Smith's unanimous decision over Ricci in the welterweight division guarantees him a six-figure contract with Ultimate Fighting Championship.
But Smith plans to stay in the Army.
An infantryman while not training for fights, Smith trains other soldiers in mixed martial arts to make them more effective warriors.
For the next month, he has to pass required Army training for senior non-commissioned officers, then he'll be able to focus more time on training for his next UFC bout.
"I'll get that knocked out and then get back to training, and just get ready for the next fight and representing the United States Army and III Corps the best that I can," Smith said.
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I solve problems and Smith is a problem. Total D-bag.
Colton is also extremely boring and likes to fake touch gloves and go in dirty.
Yup, that was a dirty move and the season was pretty boring. Still i couldn't believe be dominated Ricci like that. OH, for the record, the promotion is called The Ultimate Fighting Championship. The Ultimate Fighter is just the name of a TV show the promotion produces. You essentially just said Monday night football is the biggest football league in the world. yay for not researching our story.
Amen! The man is doing what he can with what he already has. Just cause it's a cake walk for him only means life is easier. I like seeing good use come of our military men and women who went to war for our country that would otherwise be misfits. Spend a few days hanging around VA hospitals in the USA and you will see tears, fears, madness and desire but the bottom line is they are men and women that need a helping hand to get through some tough times.
the misfits end up being cops.
I commend the soldier on winning, but really, if he wants to be a real ultimate fighter he should try boxing. Boxers go to MMA, but very seldom do MMA fighters go to boxing... mainly because of the higher skill level needed in boxing.
you are an idiot to think boxing is a higher skill than mma and yes your name says it all
hey todd....i wholeheartyedly agree with you.....as a fighting afficianado (sp?), anyone who compares boxing, a highly regimented sport, with the fluidity of mma is an idiot
Both you and rathjian_henn know zero about boxing obviously. And rathjian_henn even claims boxing isn't fluid. Both of you would be dismantled in no time in a boxing ring with even a halfway decent boxer. And I repeat, hardly ANY MMA guys attempt boxing, but MANY boxers have entered MMA and had success. So THAT is the true litmus test.
Dude you have no clue what you are talking about. MMA requires a lot more skill than boxing ever did. Nowadays you must learn at least 2 MMA styles to be any good. Most learn wrestling and BJJ. Boxing is a sport that is dying. MMA is the new boxing.
Boxing isn't dying. MMA fighters don't get any huge PPV events or make 100K to 25 mil regularly. Like I said, hardly ANY MMA guys try boxing, because they know they don't have that much talent.
You can’t compare the two sports. Both have different rules and regulations. If you put a boxer in the octagon with a professional MMA fighter the outcome is simple. If you put gloves on an MMA fighter and put him in the ring with a professional fighter fighting under boxing rules, what do you think the outcome will be?
Lets see boxer stand around and punch each other in the face. MMA combines boxing, kick boxing, wrestling and just about every form of martial arts there are. Its much more physical and requires much more training.
If MMA guys are so great, why can't they learn the full sport of boxing? And yes, boxers get punched in the face regularly. Next wacked question?
MMA fighters are way tougher than boxers do your research. there has never been a boxing MMA champ. Boxers are terrible fighters
On this, YOU'RE the clueless one. Boxers are excellent fighters; don't think for a moment that just because they don't fight using the same rules that they CAN"T fight.
Way tougher? Now that's just stupid, stupid talk. Does it combine more fighting skills? Yes. But tougher? Good God, man, get a grip! Boxing is a skill. It is called BOXING.
Any MMA fighter would get annihilated in the boxing ring with even the average pro boxers in their weight division, let alone any of the top ten guys. Stay safe, keep doing that limp wristed MMA stuff.
Ever heard of rashad evans? Boxer & mma champion. Who does GSP train with? Oh ya, manny pacquiao. GSP even admitted how tough & challenging boxing is & that pacquiao whooped him on the regular. Ever heard of rampage jackson? Boxer & champion. Ever heard of anderson silva? Boxer & champion... I rest my case
stupid comment! MMA fighters are the ultimate warrior! A boxer gets rocked, standing 8 count, MMA gets rocked, he protects until he can clear the cobwebs, a boxer gets cut, the bout is stopped, an MMA fighter gets cut, he fights harder
Like I said, you MMA guys come on over to boxing. See how that goes for you. Guaranteed you'll get KOd in no time.
Yes, because THAT worked so well for James 'Marbles in Mouth' Toney
James Toney is a lousy example. He was way past his prime in boxing before he tried MMA. And you should know that.
Um, you are an idiot. UFC fighters make huge paychecks. There hasn't been a good boxing match worth watching in a while.
C'mon! A REAL man would have taken his AR-15 out and DRILLED him good!
Its idiots like you that make us competent gun owners look like morons. No wonder people want more gun control.
yeah cuz there are valid reasons to own an ar15 other than being able to put 3+ bullets into 20 toddlers in under 10minutes
I commend him,but truly there is a little old lady with purse, that could knock him out. Did you ever hear a little old lady say something, which just puts fear in you. Suddenly you are in mental upheaval, scared, whmmmm.
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To those claiming poor sportsmanship due to the no-call low blow, these fighters are trained to go until the ref stops you. Period. Claim what you want, from any example fight in the UFC's past of "Well, this guy did this when ..." etc. ... sorry but, no. Like any professional sport ... NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL (when not locked out), the refs miss calls and you keep playing.
Does it suck that it happened and potentially affected the outcome? Sure. But, Colton did nothing different than the vast majority of fighters are going to do. He didn't cheat. He didn't game the system. He played by the rules as they are laid out.
Whats NHL again? oh wait
i watched the series and the fight and the canadian (ricci) thinks he is WAY better than he actually is~ i am glad colton was able to take him down a notch and now make a living~which,by the way, is almost IMPOSSIBLE in today's armed forces.
Anyone who actually watched this saw Colton Smith, already proven earlier in the show to be a cheap shot artist by faking a glove touch and shooting in for a takedown, try to capitalize on an illegal low blow quickly after the referee ignored it and essentially spent the whole fight laying on his opponent with weak submission attempts. Then after the fight basicaly disrespected the Harley Davidson sponsor. Just because he is in the Army does not make him a role model, and i'm looking forward to seeing him take on a good striker with better wrestling in the Welterweight Division like Jake Ellenberger, Mike Pierce, Johny Hendricks, or Josh Koscheck so he can be knocked out and put in his place.
Yeah I saw that too. He's a punkl. Gives the Army a bad name. No class, no sportsmanship.
He also isn't a "senior non-commissioned officer" that would be Soldiers in the pay grades of E-7 and above, not E-6. Good job CNN.
mmmm.... There's such a thing in the USA called the Senior Leaders Course (SLC) which is open to SSG and SFC ranks... I think he fits the bill as a SSG, unless he has a non-rec in his file by his CO...
I think that is the "training" they were attemtping to ID
@Just a thought – Pretty ignorant comment to make.
@Buck1911 – That was the Marines. No more endorsement deal.
Mike Ricci deserved a better match than this. Smith pretty much stalled for 15 minutes, made a few unsuccessful attempts at submissions, all of which made me believe he knew he couldn't match Ricci's skills. It was a disappointing display of poor sportmanship, recognized by the announcers and by the audience.
If the guy was such a great fighter, why did he lose? Maybe Smith was stalling for 15 minutes, but at no point in 15 minutes could Ricci put together a few blows or a good takedown? That is like a baseball player blaming his poor hitting performance on the pitcher not giving him good pitches. Make something happen!!!
Stalling would imply he just laid in the top position hoping to out point is opponent, that's not what happened. He tried to finish, he just lacked the skill. And that's what I see as Smith's biggest problem. Until he leaves the military and trains at a real camp, he'll never have the skill set to be successful against high level fighters.
what fight were you watching???? Ricci was barely there
Neither one can hang with top level fighters. Ricci can't even stop a wrestler from holding him down and thats all Smith knows how to do. They'll both be pounded at the elite level.
What a poorly researched and written article. Come on CNN, you can do better. "Ultimate Fighter is the world's largest promoter of MMA events" Ummm, no. The UFC is the promoter in question.
You can't extrapolate that to understand that we all get that the UFC and the Ultimate Fighter are the same thing? Same company, same multi-millionaires owning it. You just needed something to validate your intelligence, didn't you? Try again, little feller.
From the few stories I've heard of soldiers and Marines getting into fisticuffs with insurgents, the insurgents get rag-dolled. LOL...this guy would dismember them.
army strong?
What a poorly researched and written article. Come on CNN, you can do better. "Ultimate Fighter is the world's largest promoter of MMA events" Ummm, no. The UFC is the promoter in question.
Didn't the army just drop their endorsement/support of MMA and the UFC?
Actually, you're thinking M&Ms and KFC.
The very heart of your writing whlist sounding agreeable at first, did not work very well with me personally after some time. Somewhere throughout the sentences you were able to make me a believer unfortunately only for a very short while. I however have a problem with your leaps in assumptions and you would do well to fill in those breaks. In the event that you actually can accomplish that, I would certainly end up being fascinated.
Same thing. One's the company, one's the show that the company owns. Nitpicker, it's the same organization.
Put the talents to use in Afghanistan, not make 6 figures fighting for fun. Why are you in the Army to begin with, just wondering.
Easy to make demands of somebody else, isn't it? Give up your 6 figure salary and put your life on the line so I can judge you in safety!
just a tought, why don't you follow him to Afghanistan or send your children?
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UFC is the best fight sport in the world. Boxing sucks and is always bought off.
Wonder why almost no MMA go to boxing, but boxers go to MMA? Answer: MMA takes less skill. And as for boxing being a paid off sport, yeah it happens every once in a while. Always? No, you're thinking WWF.
You are a moron. Stop posting such idiotic garbage.
@love ufc thatguy is an idiot he thinks boxing is the the higher skill when most mma fighters actually bring in boxing trainers for training for a fight oh yeah as well as jujitsu trainers grappling trainers and wrestling trainers. but yet he thinks boxing is the higher skill idiot
Again, if MMA guys are so great, why don't they go for the REAL money in boxing? Answer: Lack of talent.
maybe its because its not about the money? maybe they like the challenge mma offers. I would like to ask, what skills do you need for boxing? seems like any skill a boxer needs is on the list an mma fighter needs, i know a guy who was a pretty damn good boxer, his current record wins was 12 i think?or 13, i dont remember exactly, ill have to ask again, any ways he started training for mma, just as hard as he did for his boxing, and beleive me, that was some tough training, but still, his first fight he got his ass handed to him
Army Combatives...fun training. Something tells me he's level III certified...