Cameron Smotherman helps the UFC usher in the Paramount+ era with a fight against Ricky Turcios this Saturday. When he steps into the cage, it’ll be on the heels of a two-fight losing streak inside the UFC. While losing is never fun, that’s not been the toughest part of the run for him.
“In the fights that I’ve lost, it’s not that I was getting my ass whooped from pillar to post from bell to bell or anything like that,” Smotherman explained. “Like the worst thing that happened to me is just that I’m getting stalled out. The way to beat me is to not fight me. And so I’m just kind of going back and focusing on those little details.”
In his three-fight UFC career, he not once has looked back at a fight and felt like he was not truly the better fighter. And perhaps it would be easier if that was in fact the case.
“I’ve never lost a fight and just felt like, ‘ah, man, that guy was just better’. It just feels like I didn’t fight,” he said. “I feel like it’d be almost easier to accept just getting beat up – knowing I just wasn’t good enough.”
However, despite being in a bad spot in terms of his recent record, it appears that the UFC still is a fan of “The Baby Faced Killer”. He draws a fight on the very first card of the new platform and in a live arena on top of that. Those facts have him thankful for the opportunity and ready to make good on it.
“I’m still grateful – that makes me at least feel like, okay, they don’t put all the blame on me that these fights, like getting booed is so embarrassing,” Smotherman said. “That’s a nightmare for me. I want to be entertaining and I want to put on a show.”
With that know, his prediction for Saturday is to check a first off for the UFC’s new deal.
“That’ll be the first knockout on Paramount+,” he declared.
