It’s felt like a long time, but Ashlee Evans-Smith is back in action. It’s not for World Series of Fighting, her former home, but with her new promotion the UFC.
June 21 was her first and last time stepping in a WSOF cage, where she finished Marceia Allen in the third round with vicious ground-and-pound. It was a fight she overcame despite setbacks and still showed her great resilience as a fighter.
Looking back, Evans-Smith is proud of what she did in that fight, while still realizing there is room for improvement. All things considered, it was a win that helped her continued growth.
“My last fight with Marceia Allen in WSOF was interesting because I had 14 stitches in my leg from an injury suffered three weeks before the fight,” Evans-Smith admitted in an exclusive interview with Bleacher Report. “So those last three weeks, I couldn’t grapple, kick the bag or even spar much. You can see in the fight, everything looked off. I have no excuses for that, but knowing that I have been able to spar and grapple in the lead-up to this fight makes me more confident than the lead-up for the Allen fight. Luckily, I eventually got the takedown, did my thing and finished her in the third round.”
Since then, she has sat on the shelf awaiting a new opponent. It was not what she had envisioned when signing with the company, as she believed this would be a stage in which she could make a name for herself and fight on a more regular basis.
Of course, unfortunately, that was not the case. In exchange, she sat and waited until she got a call that was quite unexpected.
“Frustration is an understatement,” Evans-Smith vented. “Not fighting hurt me financially and I was not getting fights, so I had to step away from training and work more at my day job bartending to make ends meet. If I am not getting fights, I am not getting paid. I stepped away from training for a few weeks when I got a call from WSOF matchmaker Ali Abdel-Aziz. He told me that he was releasing me because Sean Shelby from the UFC called and wanted me to fight Raquel Pennington.”
Evans-Smith is not quite sure why getting fights in WSOF was so difficult. There are a number of reasons it could have been, but she has her own theory.
“I think not getting fights in WSOF was a little bit of two things. I don’t think they could find anybody to fight me and I think they have so many people under contract that they have to spread out their appearances. Most of the best bantamweight fighters are in the UFC and it’s hard to find legit women outside UFC and Invicta to fight me in WSOF. So it was a little of both.”
Getting that call was huge for Evans-Smith. Not only is the UFC the biggest MMA promotion on Earth, but it meant getting a more consistent paycheck from MMA.
Although, that being said, there were definitely mixed emotions. Getting to the UFC was her dream, but it was not how it played out in her head.
“Getting the call this early from the UFC was not the plan, but neither was only getting one fight in the long time I was signed with WSOF,” Evans-Smith explained. “I thought, in my head, that I would get my four fights and have a 6-0 pro record while holding two belts before going to the UFC (the CFA and WSOF titles). Life doesn’t always work out the way you plan, but I have one belt (CFA title) and now I am competing on UFC 181.”
As stated, Evans-Smith does not only live off the MMA. She bar tends on the side to bring in money, something that has cut into her gym time.
However, she’s not completely worried about that. She is a warrior that knows when it’s time to go into combat and does not shy away from challenges.
“I didn’t really have a fight camp leading to this late notice bout, so I haven’t been training as much as I normally do,” Evans-Smith pointed out. “I had to do what I had to do to pay my bills. But now, I have a fight, I’m in camp and I am ready to go. Once the cage door closes, it’s time to do my thing again.”
At UFC 181, Evans-Smith meets Raquel Pennington, who was originally slated to meet world champion boxer and MMA up-and-comer Holly Holm. Pennington, an Ultimate Fighter 18 vet and two-time UFC veteran, is more experienced than Evans-Smith and has been far more busy in the last year.
However, Evans-Smith is definitely stoked for the matchup and sees this opportunity as one she can really stand out when it’s all said and done.
“Raquel is a great fighter, I enjoy her personality,” Evans-Smith confided. “She’s a great representative of the sport. But, I think she’s a great first opponent for my first UFC fight. She’s beatable, yet a great challenge to my skill set.”
“It might sound conceited or cocky, but she’s been training for Holly Holm, not Ashlee Evans-Smith. She was training for a world-class boxer and now she has me, who has a very different style from Holly. It’s gonna be a tough matchup for her. I’m sure Raquel’s a very well-rounded fighter, she’s probably not just a striker. But I think my wrestling is still going to be too much for her. I am very heavy when I get on top. She’ll be uncomfortable.”
With just one fight in 2014, Evans-Smith is looking to be more active. Just look at her amateur career. She was competing often, and she loved it.
Perhaps the UFC is the vehicle to getting her more active as a fighter.
“I sure hope signing with the UFC means more fights more often. I love being active with my fight career, going to the gym and having a purpose and an enemy to work on. Fight camps make me a better fighter and helps me improve more, so the more opponents I have set in stone, the better I will get.”
*Ashlee would like to thank Adam Lynn, Russ Muira, and her teammates at Subfighter MMA. She’d also like to thank Corey Beasly at Innocative Results, Mike Meish and her sponsors, MRM, Dethrone, Triumph United, Lana’s Egg Whites, AdrianGomezHealth.com, Yoga Zeah and her little town of Ukiah, CA.
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