Steve Smith’s Short-Lived UFC Tryout
August 7, 2008 by Kori Ellis
Filed under Sports Rumors
My name is Tim Zaegel, resident racing expert at the b5 Media channel and author of www.doyounascar.com. I’m here blogging at Dejuiced today as part of b5’s promotional Guest Blogging Week, so I hope you enjoy!
Back on July 10th, Quenton “Rampage” Jackson lost his UFC Light Heavyweight Championship to Forrest Griffin via the judges’ decision, and then, just 10 days later, Jackson was all over the news again when he was arrested and booked on account of felony reckless driving.
Well, it’s no big secret that most professional athletes tend to follow other sports outside of their own, so it’s no surprise that Carolina Panthers WR Steve Smith heard about Jackson’s endeavours on the news as well. His reaction to the situation?
As you can see, Smith is an athlete of the purist form as he holds true to the age long motto that ‘actions speak louder than words’, and all indicators are that Smith’s got his sights set on the big prize over in the UFC. Unfortunately for Steve, though, Panthers Head Coach John Fox wasn’t all too impressed with his assault on teammate Ken Lucas, and as a result, he was removed from Panthers training camp and suspended for the first two games of the season.
To add insult to injury, apparently after taking the long walk of shame, once he got home Smith realized one of two things:
A) Chuck Lidell – the man that Jackson originally defeated for the title – will be fighting on pay-per-view on August 9th, and that a win will likely put him back in contention for another title fight;
or
B) UFC President, Dana White, was just flat-out equally unimpressed with Steve’s fight tape audition, and the road to a title fight might take just a tad longer than originally expected.
Whatever the case may be, Smith has since returned to Panthers training camp, and has issued formal apologies to his coaching staff, his team, and most importantly, to Ken Lucas, whom suffered a broken nose as a result of the incident. Smith will be allowed to participate in team practices and exhibition games, but as of right now, his 2-game suspension to begin the season remains in tact.
Written by Tim Zaegel
