Kickboxing career

Smith won his first professional kickboxing title in 1983 for the World Kickboxing Council by defeating light heavyweight champion Tony Morelli, by knockout in the seventh round. Later that year, he won the World Kickboxing Association heavyweight title from Travis Everett with a KO via low kicks. Smith then went ten straight years without a loss. He also had a notable win in 1991 over at the time, super up and comer Stan Longinidis who was tearing through the ranks. Maurice won this 12 round match by split decision, after coming back after being knocked down in the first round by Stan. Many consider this match to be one of the greatest kickboxing matches of all time.

Maurice Smith is considered by some to be the greatest kickboxer ever.

When fighting, Maurice Smith would come out to U can't touch this hip hop song when making his entrace, and wear large hip-hop sunglasses.

Mixed martial arts career

After a stint in Japanese promotions Pancrase and RINGS, accumulating a 4-7 record, Smith joined Battlecade Extreme Fighting in 1996 to fight in their third event against the heavyweight champion Marcus "Conan" Silvira. Throughout the fight Maurice showed excellent use of the sprawl technique which negated the Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu man's attempts at takedowns before knocking Conan out in the third round with a kick to the head. In doing so he became the first legitimate striker to win a top end MMA event. He then defended his title in the forth show against judo exponant Kazunari Murakami, this time Maurice won with a first round knockout. After that the company went under and Maurice went to the UFC. At UFC 14 on 27 July 1997, he defeated Mark Coleman via unanimous decision to win the UFC heavyweight championship. He successfully defended his belt against David "Tank" Abbott winning via strikes, before losing his belt to Randy Couture due to a controversial decision.

Return to MMA

On May 19, 2007 Maurice Smith had his first MMA bout in almost seven years when he defeated Marco Ruas by TKO at an International Fight League show held in Chicago. On February 23, 2008 at a Strikeforce event entitled Strikeforce: At The Dome held at the Tacoma Dome in Tacoma, Washington, Smith defeated kickboxer Rick Roufus, who was making his MMA debut, by submission at 1:53 of the first round.

Maurice Smith was the coach of the Seattle Tiger Sharks of the International Fight League from 2006 to 2007. He is currently associated with Team Alliance.