Scott Smith Makes His MMA Return on Saturday

Scott Smith is one name any MMA fan following the sport from the mid-2000s will remember fondly. Saturday 23 January sees Smith make his return to MMA having not fought since 2013 following battles with alcohol addiction in the latter stages of his career.

An exciting fighter with serious finishing power—an attribute which helped earn him his apt "Hands of Steel" moniker, along with his extensive family history of occupational steelworkers—Smith was long a fan favourite within the MMA community.

While he had exhilarating runs in both Elite XC and Strikeforce—facing off against the likes of Nick Diaz, Robbie Lawler, Kyle Noke, Tarec Saffiedine and Cung Le—it's Smith's relatively short-lived tenure in the UFC of which he is best known for.

Suffering a loss in his inaugural fight in the UFC to David Terrell via rear naked choke at UFC 59: Reality Check (remember when all UFC events had "cool" titles like that?), Scott was invited to appear on the infamous season four of The Ultimate Fighter: The Comeback—a series which produced a new welterweight champion in Matt Serra.

Smith lost in the tournament, succumbing to another rear naked choke—this time to middleweight title contender-turned poor weight-cutter Travis Lutter in the quarter finals.

Hands of Steel, however, was afforded the opportunity to fight for the UFC again in the TUF 4 finale in Las Vegas against fellow season 4 competitor Pete "Drago" Sell. This fight undoubtedly provided Smith's most memorable moment in the Octagon.

Friends on the show, Smith and Sell put their friendship aside to produce a great fight punctuated with one of the best conclusions to a fight in UFC history. The middleweights had been trading shots throughout the contest. But, as three minutes had elapsed in the second round, Drago threw a left hook to the body of Smith, leaving him seemingly helpless as he made a hasty retreat backwards towards the cage.

Looking as vulnerable as any fighter possibly could short of being knocked out, Smith's body appeared ready to give out on him from that devastating liver shot. Sensing a finish, Sell charged in to conclusively put an abrupt end to the fight. While still clutching the left side of his body, you can clearly see Smith look up at the surging Drago as if the fight were in slow motion—his face contorted in fight or flight panic. However, Smith uncorks a mighty right hand to the jaw of the onrushing Sell, leaving his opponent starched, laying on the canvas before crumpling to a heap himself as the pain produced from the body shot became too much to bear.

It was a spectacular way to end a fight that will live long in the memory. Like with Smith, Sell is also constantly pestered with questions about the fight. But, despite getting knocked out, he doesn't seem to mind all that much. Speaking to MMA Junkie, Sell said: "You know the chances of that happening are insane. You can look at that in two different ways. Imagine I hit him with the body shot and I dropped him. Maybe that leads to a title shot or a fight with other people that are close to a title shot – maybe if I wasn't such a cowboy and didn't go right after the guy and played it safer. But man, in hindsight everything is real easy to see after the fact."

The Sell win boosted Smith's record up to an impressive 11-2. But, at 26-years old, the later alcohol demons hadn't set in at this point.

However, his battle with alcohol did indeed catch up with him during his subsequent run of fights which saw him appear two more times in the UFC before competing under a variety of banners such as Elite XC, Strikeforce and local shows. Since the stirring comeback against Sell, Smith went 7-8-1 in his career—suffering three damaging and concussive knockouts in that time against heavy hitters Cung Le, Robbie Lawler and Paul Daley.

The Le loss came in a rematch following yet another rousing comeback. The first fight saw the underdog Smith being beaten up for two rounds, enduring a barrage of kicks from the Sanshou stylings of Le. But, Le's gas tank depleted and Smith scored a KO win over the Vietnamese-American combat sports legend—Smith handing Le his first ever professional loss in his fighting career in an upset of gargantuan proportions.

Smith's alcohol problems are well-documented. In his excellent, candid interview conducted by MMAFighting's Chuck Mindenhall back in 2014, Smith said his fighting career pomp in 2006, culminating in the TUF appearance and subsequent fight against Sell, was worlds apart from his post-TUF performances—largely due to the alcohol problems he faced.

Talking during one of his stints in rehab, Smith told Mindenhall: "Those were the best times for me because my alcoholism hadn't really kicked in yet. I had some really good fights after that, but I think being on the show, that was the best shape I'd ever been in my life. And with the WEC right before, I wasn't doing it for the money. It was a true passion for me. I think that's when I was peaking."

But, things escalated for the Sacramento, California native. His comment to Mindenhall regarding his final fight in Strikeforce—which saw Smith submit to a guillotine choke against 6-5 Lumumba Sayers within 94 seconds back in 2012—was particularly revealing.

"You leave Tuesday for a Saturday fight, and I remember my last Strikeforce fight I drank that Sunday night. I didn't sleep that Monday night, Tuesday night or Wednesday night. I was throwing up. I finally got a little bit of sleep Thursday night. I weighed in on Friday. I was a complete wreck, and I had no business fighting."

A year later, Smith returned to the cage for West Coast Fighting Championships—his last fight before now. It was a return to form for Smith as he handily dealt with a fighter established on the local circuit in Mark Matthews, dishing out a second round TKO to win the vacant middleweight title. This was Smith's 15th knockout victory from 18 wins—an 83% KO rate.

This was a fight Smith said was as mental as it was physical. The lead-up to the contest was the longest stint of post-alcoholism sobriety he had endured in the lead up to any fight up until that point.

Now, over two years later, Smith looks set to lace up the gloves once again against California native Justin Baesman at West Coast Fight Championships 16. It's a stern test for the returning Smith with Bellator and WSOF veteran Baesman accruing a respectable record of 16-8 during his career. But, with Smith's addiction issues hopefully well behind him, there would be nothing sweeter than seeing his hand raised the victor on Saturday night.

A fighting career defined by stirring comeback victories over the likes of Pete Sell and Cung Le, triumph on Saturday night could well prove to be the biggest riposte of them all for Scott Smith.