Jacobe Smith is making his way up the welterweight ranks, creating that statement by dominating veteran Randy Brown in the UFC Vegas 123 co-main event.
The fight’s start saw Smith looking to land leg kicks and get inside, while Brown looked to use his reach advantage and avoid Smith’s strikes. Smith, however, managed to do damage with a number of leg kicks before scoring a takedown with 100 seconds left in the round, controlling the action on top for the remainder of round one.
Smith landed a strong left early in round two before bringing Brown back to the ground. Smith controlled the action with strikes while in Brown’s guard, cutting Brown open with elbows.
Smith continued this pace into the third, ending with just over nine minutes of ground control time as he swept the scorecards 30-26.
Smith is now 14-0 as a pro and 5-0 in the UFC since earning a contract on Dana White’s Contender Series. This was his first UFC fight that went into the third round, let alone went to a decision.
Smith took this fight on short notice, having run through Bruce Whitehead four weeks ago at UFC 332.
