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The former UFC bantamweight and current Bellator fighter has been a central figure in the fight for MMA labor rights, but at the moment she’s taking on a bigger cause.
When a few UFC fighters started giving voice to the idea of collective bargaining several years back, Leslie Smith quickly rose to the forefront among active athletes willing to put themselves on the front lines in the push for organization. Her Project Spearhead drive may not have yet united the UFC roster against their corporate masters, but it’s served as an introduction to the conversation for many.
At the moment, however, Smith admits that she’s put her focus into something more important than working for improved negotiating leverage in mixed martial arts. The Black Lives Matter movement has been launched back into the forefront of the American public discourse following the murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin. In the weeks that followed Floyd’s killing, the country has seen waves of protest—resulting in numerous clashes between police and protestors fighting against police brutality.
Smith has been taking part in those protests around the Oakland area—including witnessing a drive by shooting during one event. She spoke about her experiences, and arrest for civil disobedience, in a recent interview with MMA Fighting.
“Just civil disobedience – they set a curfew, and then I decided to get arrested,” Smith said when asked about the events that led to her being detained. “But it was with four 18- to 20-year-old girls that I got arrested with, and I have so much faith in the future. They were awesome, they were wonderful, and I’m so happy and proud that this next generation is stepping up in ways that the past generations really haven’t.”
“I was out [from jail] pretty quickly,” she continued. “They said that they were not going to book us into the jail; they said that we were citation-only. They took their time, though. They put us inside of a van for a little while, then they transported us, then they left us there for a little while, and then they transported us to the jail, and then they left us there for a little while. It was about 2 o’clock [in the morning] when I got out.”
The ‘Peacemaker’ highlighted how impressed she was by the young activists she was protesting alongside. And, during their time waiting in police custody together, she made it clear that this was something they should be proud of, not worried over.
“If I was ever hiring somebody and for some reason their police record came up and I saw that they had been arrested for civil disobedience for protesting against police brutality, that would 100% put them to the top of the list as far as my hiring would go,” Smith recounted telling her fellow protestors. It’s an issue Smith feels is important enough even to take priority over her work with Project Spearhead, and MMA labor relations.
“I feel like the Black Lives Matter protests going on right now are the most important thing,” Smith admitted, when asked about her push for collective bargaining in MMA. “If I had to choose what do I care about in the whole wide world, if the last thing that I post on my Instagram is going to be this stamp of what do I care about if I were to die tomorrow, then I care a lot more about this national movement to protect black people and other people of color from police brutality in the United States. I care about that way more than I do about anything else.”
Smith last fought Arlene Blencowe at Bellator 233, in November of last year—losing a unanimous decision. That loss came on the heels of her Bellator debut, a win over Sinead Kavanaugh in July of 2019. She was released from the UFC in 2017, on the back of wins over Irene Aldana and Amanda Lemos, seemingly due to her efforts to organize fighters in the promotion.