Josiah Harrell suffered a brutal knockout loss in his octagon debut at UFC Houston after he scored a takedown on Jacobe Smith but then got reversed before eating several hard punches that left him unconscious on the canvas.
UFC legend Matt Brown, who has served as one of Harrell’s coaches and cornered him during the fight on Saturday, revealed that the finish came after the takedown actually did the bulk of the damage prior to the stoppage. It turns out, Harrell’s momentum led to his own head slamming
onto the ground and that likely explains why he lost the position to Smith in such rapid-fire fashion.
“It was a tough fight to take on eight days’ notice to begin with, but he stepped up to the challenge and I think he could have done better than he did,” Brown said on the latest episode of The Fighter vs. The Writer. “I think he thinks could have done better than he did, I don’t think that’s just me saying that.
“The funny thing is I don’t think a lot of people noticed this, and I didn’t even notice it live when I watched it, but he got knocked out on the takedown, when he took down Jacobe Smith. He hit his head, and I don’t think it completely knocked him out, but it clearly rocked him real bad, and then of course, Jacobe got an easy finish after that.”
The finish came after Smith hammered away with some nasty punches on the ground but a few of those shots came after Harrell was already out. Referee Kerry Hatley attempted to intervene, but Smith kept punching until he was finally pushed off Harrell to end the fight.
Looking back at the stoppage, Brown argues that Smith definitely deserves some blame for continuing to throw shots when Harrell was clearly knocked out.
“The only thing I will take away from him was he didn’t have to land those couple of extra shots when the referee kind of tried to pull him off,” Brown said. “I didn’t notice that live, because I’m putting my head down, knowing what’s about to happen, not really focusing on that. I thought that was a little bit dirty. But other than that, I wouldn’t take anything away from him.”
Truth be told, Brown says Smith and the referee probably both deserve some blame for the late stoppage. But Brown doesn’t buy the argument that Smith was just acting in the heat of the moment, and he should have kept punching until the referee pulled him off.
“I’ll put blame on both of them,” Brown said. “Kerry Hatley should have stopped it sooner, and Jacobe Smith should have had the awareness to stop. It was both their faults. It wasn’t one or the other. Both of them could have been more proactive. Jacobe knew he was knocked out. He knew he was punching a dead man. I know how it is in the heat of the moment. I’ve had enough fights. You guys have seen me pull back in fights where I had a guy knocked out and I stopped it. Don’t tell me you can’t think about that in the heat of the moment.
“But I also get Kerry Hatley should have been more aggressive with the stoppage, especially he’s clearly knocked out and there’s no sign of Jacobe Smith slowing down. But I think to give Kerry Hatley credit, I think he thought he just lets him [know] it’s done, and the guy’s going to stop, and he didn’t. They’re both at fault to some extent. I put more fault on Jacobe Smith.”
Brown admits it was tough to watch his fighter suffer such a brutal knockout, especially knowing everything Harrell did to get back to the UFC after he was initially signed and then released due to a brain abnormality that required surgery.
While he’s been on both sides of highlight reel knockouts during his own career, Brown had never witnessed one of his own fighters suffer that fate.
“I tell you what, that was the first time I cornered someone, and they got knocked out,” Brown said. “He’s a good friend, too, obviously I’m pretty close with him, trained with him for a while and started coaching him recently since my retirement and his coming up. That shit hurts. That shit is hard to deal with. Looking in the cage and watching him stumble over himself and they sent me in [to help] because he’s trying to grab the refs and the doctor. They sent me in to try and calm him down and I had to look in his eyes and tell you ‘you lost, you need to stop.’ That’s f*cking hard.
“The fact that he had the brain surgery and being that I’ve never cornered someone that got knocked out before, I didn’t actually know what it’s like. I’ve seen it on TV, but I’ve never been in the corner before. To watch him come back from it, it was a scary thing. It was actually one of the few times, I guess probably the only time I’ve been in the corner, and my heart kind of dropped and got worried about someone.”
The knockout coupled with the late stoppage made for a tough night but Brown says thankfully Harrell didn’t suffer any serious damage and he quickly recovered backstage after leaving the octagon.
“Totally fine. By the time we were backstage, he was totally fine,” Brown said. “Good spirits. Just happy to have been blessed with the opportunity. He’ll definitely come back stronger. I don’t like being that guy but he got knocked out on a takedown. He was being offensive, doing the right thing. He took down a goddamn Big 12 champ, All-American [wrestler] and knocked himself out on the way.
“He’s going to be back. He’s going to be stronger. I still think people are going to be very shocked when they see him at his best going in there. I still believe 100 percent he has every opportunity be a champion. He’s got all the tools to be a champion.”
