'I'm confident I'm going to be a UFC fighter, and one of the best in the world' says Halifax fighter George Smith

George Smith could be on the verge of taking the mixed martial arts world by storm.

The 25-year-old, from Shelf, has the high-profile Ultimate Fighting Championship in his sights, and if his career so far is anything to go by, won't stop until he gets there.

"I've always done martial arts, my grandad and my dad got me into it," says the former Hipperholme and Lightcliffe High School pupil.

"My family have always been very supportive of me and with me every step of the way.

"I was quite a bad kid to be honest, I had loads of energy and needed a sport to give me that discipline.

"I got taken to judo class in Pellon when I was really young and I got good at it. I played football and rugby too.

"I started doing a bit of Brazilian jiu jitsu and mixed martial arts to improve my ground game in judo, to supplement it.

"I had my first MMA fight when I was 16 but concentrated on judo until I was about 20.

"I've always been very disciplined. Although I didn't pay attention in school particularly, because I didn't really enjoy it, I was always paying attention in sports, always turning up.

"I wasn't always the most talented but I just kept going."

Smith moved away to live in Walsall to train with the Great Britain Judo Team aged 17.

"They set-up a national, UK Sport funded centre in Walsall, and I travelled the world," he says.

"I won the national championships as a junior, I was one of the top seniors in the country at under 21 level.

"I went to a junior worlds, junior Europeans and a won a few European Cup medals.

"I was never going to go down the university route, I always knew I wanted to do something different.

"I was always going to be involved in sports or something like that."

But, aged 20, he fell out of love with the sport.

"I just lost enjoyment. Like most amateur sports, it was quite political," he says.

"All governing bodies are the same, it's run by the same people, employs the same people, who then employ the same people, and it goes round in circles.

"I'm not saying I'd have been an Olympic champion but I know there's a lot of people who could have been who never were, because of how the centre was run.

"So I totally lost enjoyment in it. I knew that if you do your hobby as a job, you should at least enjoy it, so when I stopped enjoying it, I stopped."

Smith came back to Halifax and started training with Team Quannum in Huddersfield.

"When I came back, I was working in retail, and worked in a metal breaking factory, just to fund training full-time," he says.

"I knew I was going to be a professional fighter. I was training twice a day, as well as working.

"I just had to stick it out and work normal jobs until then.

"One of the coaches at Team Quannam knew that place couldn't give me the full-time training I needed, so I moved to SBG Manchester, which is one of the best gyms in the country with the best coaching and some of the best fighters.

"I don't do things in half measures, whatever I do I'm fully on it."

MMA fights consist of three five minute rounds for a non-title fight or five five minute rounds for a title bout.

"It's a mixture of all martial arts," says Smith. "There's no eye gouging, no dirty play, and the winner is usually the person who's practiced their skills most.

"You have to be a good enough striker to beat a striker, and you have to be a good enough grappler to beat a grappler. you've got to be very well-rounded.

"I'm not the most aggressive person but I like the tactics of fighting, I like the skill development and I like competing.

"I like winning fights and training hard to win the fights, knowing that I've sacrificed in order to get the results I want."

Smith held two titles as an amateur MMA fighter, finishing with a record of 11 wins and one defeat.

He won the prestigious Cage Warrior Amateur Championship and the Almighty Fighting Championship amateur belt, a Yorkshire based promotion, the last belt he won before turning pro in July 2018.

"I turned pro because I was ranked number one in the UK and Ireland so there was nothing else to beat at the time," he says.

"I turned pro with a lot of talk around me, a lot of people were expecting big things from me, so I had a lot of pressure."

Smith lost his pro debut in July 2018 - "It was a disaster of a night, I fought completely out of character" - but went on a five-fight win streak last year, including four first round finishes.

He is signed to Cage Warriors on a five-fight deal, with his last fight coming on the company's first ever Manchester card, which Smith won in the first round.

"Being based in Manchester, it was a big night for me," he says.

"It was sold out, with a big support."

Smith is ranked in the top 30 of UK pros but thinks he's one fight off a world title shot, and hopes to get signed to UFC, the global MMA event, after his next few fights.

"My main goal is to keep winning fights, but to bring the big world title fights and UFC fights to Yorkshire," he says.

"Yorkshire's not had a UFC show. Manchester has, Birmingham has, and London, but I want to bring it to Leeds. The arena, or as a Leeds fan, to Elland Road.

"That's a big dream of mine.

"People used to see MMA as just cage fighting and they'd judge MMA fighters a bit differently to boxers.

"But now people have seen what we're like, had chance to see us online.

"There's a lot of big stars in MMA now, people are really buying into our stories and want to know more about us."

Smith says he has the inner drive and determination to reach the top in his sport, and hopes to inspire others along the way.

"With every fibre of my being, I'm confident I'm going to be a UFC fighter, and one of the best in the world," he says.

"Nobody outworks me. That's one thing I pride myself on, I always train harder than everyone, I'm more disciplined than anyone, so I'm confident I can do it.

"I'm a couple of fights off solidifying myself as Europe's best middleweight, but I want to push on then and secure a place in the 10 and be number one in the world.

"I am just a normal kid from Halifax, from a normal family.

"I want to inspire young kids, not even in MMA but just to be disciplined in something that you enjoy, and to send out a message that you can succeed in whatever you want to do.

"Seeing young Halifax lads or girls following their dreams would be a nice thing if I could do anything to help them."