Jacobe Smith expects to stay undefeated from now until the time he captures UFC welterweight gold, and beyond.
Smith (14-0 MMA, 5-0 UFC) added to his undefeated record Saturday at UFC Fight Night 292 when he overwhelmed Randy Brown (20-9 MMA, 14-9 UFC) en route to a unanimous decision win at Meta APEX in Las Vegas.
It's the first time Smith has gone to the scorecards under the UFC banner, and it came against his more experienced foe yet. It was an important lesson for him, and one he can be content with after taking the fight on less than three weeks' notice.
"I wanted to keep my finish streak going," Smith told MMA Junkie post-fight at UFC Fight Night 292. "But you deal with sh*t in fighting that holds a toll on you when you'e in there. I felt
like I dealt with it well. No excuses, but I think I handled business up to par."
With some validation behind his name and hype, Smith thinks now is the time to make his push to gold. He's already targeting a return at UFC Fight Night 296 on Jan. 16 in his hometown of Dallas, and knows exactly who he wants on that card.
Smith has everything planned out, and as long as he can get the names on his hit list, he sees no reason why a title shot won't soon be his.
"If it was up to me, I'd drag Kevin Holland's ass down to Dallas and then beat his ass," Smith said. "Then after that get somebody like Sean Brady. And then after that, who knows? Maybe Belal (Muhammad) – somebody like that in there, just to have an ex-champ on my resume. Then after that, see who's got the belt at the time.
"They've got to worry about me everywhere. This ain't no patty cake. This is 'Real Deal' Holyfield sh*t, so we're going to be in there fighting."
This article originally appeared on MMA Junkie: Jacobe Smith lays out three-fight plan to secure title shot after UFC Vegas 123 win
