Elijah Smith walked into the last fight of his first UFC contract and left with about as much leverage as a 24-year-old prospect can carry. The bantamweight knocked out veteran Davey Grant 60 seconds into Round 1 on the main card of UFC Fight Night 293 at the Meta Apex in Las Vegas on Saturday. Then he used the microphone to ask for a new deal. MMA Junkie reported that Smith also grabbed a quick word with UFC chief business officer Hunter Campbell, who was sitting cageside for the whole thing.
That conversation clearly left Smith feeling good. At the post-fight press conference he sounded like a guy who already knows the phone is going to ring.
“I feel like we’re on to something,” Smith said. “We’re probably going to, probably something big might come up. That’s what I’m expecting. He just gave me props in the fight, and you know, we’ll see what happens after that.”
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The numbers back up the optimism. Smith is now 11-1 overall and a perfect 4-0 inside the Octagon, which means he cleared the entire four-fight deal without a blemish. Grant, who falls to 17-9 overall and 9-8 in the UFC, brought a lot of experience into the cage and didn’t get a full minute to use any of it. Smith also took home a $100,000 Performance of the Night bonus, so the negotiating starts with a fresh highlight and a fat check already in the bank.
Fighting out a contract can get in a young fighter’s head. One loss and the conversation with the promotion changes fast. Smith said he made a point of tuning all that out during the buildup.
“I didn’t want that to clear or to blur my head or blur my vision with what was in front of me,” Smith said. “I can only control the things that I can control, and that is how I go out and perform. Everything else, it’ll find its way to me. But I’ve got to control the things that I can control, and that’s me fighting.”
No new deal has been announced, and there’s no word yet on who or when Smith fights next. For now, the ball sits with Campbell and the UFC.
My take? This is how you do it. Plenty of guys fight out their deal by grinding a decision and hoping the brass noticed. Smith did it in one minute, with the guy who signs the paperwork close enough to feel the thud. You can’t ask for a better pitch meeting. He’s 24, he’s 4-0 with the company and he just got paid a bonus for making a veteran’s night very short. If the UFC tries to lowball him after that, his manager should just play the clip on a loop until somebody adds a zero.
