Recovered and refocused: Former OSU wrestler Jacobe Smith and the leap of faith that could land him in UFC
As Jacobe Smith sat in a small apartment in Northern California, he reached a conclusion: He needed a change.
Banged up, homesick and slightly disappointed, Smith contemplated a full reset – but that’s easier said than done when your imperfect recipe works.
Despite all of nagging injuries and grueling training sessions he endured, Smith, for as long as he could remember, had been at the top of whatever athletic activity he partook in.
The son of an NFL player, Smith was fascinated by high-level athletes, their training sessions and their mentalities. But for the first decade-plus of his life, he was unable to partake in sports due to asthma.
When he finally received clearance to partake in middle school, Smith was overwhelmed by the options in front of him. There were so many he could sign up for. That’s when he saw wrestling listed as an option.
Perfect. He could be just like … John Cena?
“I signed up for wrestling, thinking it was going to be WWE wrestling and I’d be getting paid,” Smith recently told MMA Junkie. “It turned out to be what it was. I’m kind of blessed, but I’m still waiting for that big payday.”
The “accidental” decision refined Smith’s life. A standout high school wrestling stint later, the teen from Muskogee, Okla., didn’t need to think twice about accepting an offer to wrestle at Oklahoma State University.
“I didn’t plan on going to college at all,” Smith said. “I was planning on fighting or going to the NFL. In college, I saw a video of Jordan Oliver on YouTube and it was that rock song, ‘Let the city burn.’ It was a highlight of him wrestling and just tearing everybody up. Right then and there I just told myself I’m wrestling for that school in those colors. It ended up happening years later.”
Rutger’s Willie Scott vs Oklahoma’s Jacobe Smith in their 184 lbs. bout. Rutgers Wrestling vs Oklahoma State in Piscataway, NJ on January 13, 2019.
While it was a dream come true, the OSU stint wasn’t all smooth sailing. Smith injured himself significantly, but chose to evade surgeries that would knock him out of action until after he graduated. He pushed through the pain and still he broke through.
“I tore everything in my knee my junior year at Oklahoma State,” Smith said. “I didn’t get it repaired until I graduated, because they told me I wouldn’t have been able to wrestling again, my senior year. My career would’ve been over, pretty much, because of the recovery time. I tried to wrestle on a torn knee for a year-and-a-half. I actually All-American’d on a torn knee.”
Eventually, the curtains closed. Smith’s wrestling career was over. Though a desire to wrestle in the Olympics persisted, circumstances pushed Smith toward fighting – something that’s always been part of his plans, even before wrestling.
“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.”
Fast forward back to Smith in his apartment pondering change – and he wasn’t alone. Smith’s long time friends and wrestling teammates Kyle Crutchmer and Nick Piccininni took the trip to live in San Jose, Calif., and train at American Kickboxing Academy (AKA).
They were invited by Cowboys alum Daniel Cormier, of course. There training was intense, as the room was filled with Dagestani representatives including Khabib Nurmagomedov. The gym slowly lost its fit for the trio of fighters.
“DC got so busy with that commentating stuff in the UFC that it took time away from me and him,” Smith said. “I was living at his gym at the wrestling academy and I’d only ever see him once or twice a week. It got to that point where we weren’t getting in the work we should’ve been getting in. I was getting dished off to other coaches that I wasn’t really connecting with. I wasn’t really feeling it.”
Smith, Crutchmer and Piccininni are in this together. So as their yearning for a change grew, they put their heads together. What about Fortis MMA under coach Sayif Saud?
“One night, we were all talking and Kyle was like, ‘I miss my daughter. It’s getting bad,’” Smith said. “I’m like, ‘Yeah, I’m getting depressed, thinking about my wife.’ He’s like, ‘Man, I’m going to type up a message to Sayif and see if we can go down there and see what it’s like, see if that training could benefit us at all.’”
Crutchmer typed out a text message, but didn’t send it. The draft sat there, an uncertain send. There was hesitation and the what-ifs existed, but Smith made an executive decision. When Crutchmer left the room for a moment without his phone, Smith hit the send arrow.
“I pressed send on the message he typed out and wasn’t going to even send,” Smith said. “I ended up sending it because I knew I wanted to see something different. We all decide we were going to do something together.”
The impulsive decision proved to be a good one. Smith found the striking and jiu-jitsu instruction he felt was missing previously. Surprisingly, the biggest impact Smith felt (besides now training only 20 minutes away from his family) was the focus on recovery. Sure, Smith still partakes in a grueling training regiment, but he’s integrated an active focus on healing and preserving as well.
“(My wife) got in my ear and Coach Sayif got in my ear about me putting more effort into my rehab like I do trying to get better at fighting,” Smith said. “Once I did that, the first two weeks I was here, I noticed a difference. I’ve been here since, what, February? Now I’m fully recovered. It took me to attack that with my full effort, as I do with fighting. Now I realize I should’ve done that a long time ago.”
Smith, 27, has a 5-0 pro MMA record. He returns Sunday at Fury FC 81 against Austin Jones (13-9) in San Antonio. The event streams on UFC Fight Pass. If he wins, Smith has his UFC roadmap figured out – and there isn’t much journey left before he gets there.
“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.”
As it stands, Smith thinks he’s already UFC-caliber. He’s able to gauge his skill level by training with UFC-ranked welterweight Geoff Neal, who has become one of his main partners to work with.
“We exchange rounds and I’m getting to the point where I don’t need to use my wrestling,” Smith said. “I can win rounds against him with my striking pedigree and just baiting him with my wrestling. I’ll steal rounds away from him every now and then. If I’m competing with Geoff, I know I can compete with any of the top fighters. I’ve seen him f*ck up some good fighters. I know I’m ready. I just don’t want to rush it.”
“… We’re trying to execute and make it easy. That’s what I want to do. I want to be able to go out with my wife after my fights and not worry about being cut up or having to go see a doctor. That’s where I feel like we’re getting at, to the point we’re getting so far ahead that once we are thrown out there, we’re going to be so far ahead of the field. We’re going to make these nights easier than they have to be.”