It’s a common theme for fighters to see a fighter on TV that inspires them. Some may have started training when they saw Rampage slam Ricardo Arona, or Anderson Silva knockout Forest Griffin. Others kicked their training into high gear when they saw Conor McGregor starch Jose Aldo or Ronda Rousey armbar Cat Zingano.
For Contender Series hopeful Cameron Smotherman, it was a regional fight on AXS TV that changed the trajectory of his career.
“I saw Adrian [Yanez] fighting in LFA on TV like randomly. I had no idea who he was – I was actually rooting for the guy he was fighting,” Smotherman explained. “I got to see him fight another time – randomly again on TV. I remember telling my girlfriend, ‘this guy fights how I envision myself fighting in the future.”
Knowing that somewhere there was someone that trained Yanez to fight like that, gave Smotherman inspiration to seek that person out. He found the gym and got to watch the come up of his now teammate, which showed him that this is all possible.
“I came to the gym because I saw Adrian on TV. I got to see him go from the regional scene to the Contender Series to the big show,” he said. “Just getting to see that first hand, getting to see that rise – it became attainable to me. It was more than just a dream.”
And it was in his new gym where he didn’t just see the growth of Yanez, but also saw former Bellator bantamweight champ, Raufeon Stots, reach the pinacle of the sport.
“When I met Raufeon, he really changed my game as far as bringing the wrestling aspect, but also a mindset aspect. He’s not that much different from me. He’s from the same city as me. He talks like me. He thinks like me, and he made it to the highest level,” he said. “He made it to a world title. So I was like ‘wow, even that’s attainable’ because it feels so far away when you start.”
And while it felt like such a far distance away early in his career, both Stots and Yanez always thought it was a lot closer than Smotherman did for himself. They saw the potential in him right away and helped him to learn to believe in himself.
“He took me to his UFC debut to be in his corner and I was like ‘thank you, man. Thank you for bringing me with you. You didn’t have to do that,” he remembered. “He was like ‘I just brought you because I know you’re going to be here one day’. I was just an amateur then. I didn’t even have a pro fight. You believe in me like that? I’m forced to believe in myself even more.”
Of course, it isn’t just the belief in his MMA career. Stots and Yanez have become so much more than that for Smotherman.
“It’s made such a huge difference for me because they aren’t just my training partners, we’re genuine friends,” he said.
Those friends will be there to root him on as he looks to attain what he once felt was so far away – a UFC contract. He’ll face Charalampos Grigoriou on week 2 of Dana White’s Contender Series this Tuesday on ESPN+.
You can hear the entire audio of this interview at 2:24.
