Elijah Smith fought out his UFC contract on Saturday night at Meta APEX in Las Vegas, and he did it in exactly one minute. The bantamweight prospect knocked out veteran Davey Grant at 1:00 of Round 1 on the UFC Vegas 124 main card (also billed as UFC Fight Night 293), moving to 11-1 overall and 4-0 inside the Octagon.
The finish came fast but it had a sequence to it. Grant opened by working leg kicks, and Smith answered by switching stances. Grant also landed a solid shot early, according to MMA Fighting, which only seemed to wake Smith up. Smith clipped him with a counter check hook, then dropped him along the fence with another left hook, per Cageside Press. A right hand landed while Grant was already falling, and the 40-year-old Brit went stiff. He was slow to get up and was still recovering while Smith celebrated.
Grant falls to 17-9 overall and 9-8 in the UFC. He came in having won three of his last four, so this was no tune-up. Smith entered at 3-0 in the promotion, and MMA Junkie reported he was puzzled that the UFC hadn’t offered him an extension before he took the final bout of his deal.
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He made the business pitch himself in the cage with Michael Bisping.
“I knew I could do it. He’s a crafty vet, and I had to stay sharp and believe in myself,” Smith said. “Sean (Shelby), Hunter (Campbell), I’m a free agent. That’s been the talks around all this whole fight week. I’ll be talking to you guys shortly. Talk to me.”
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Smith also had a lot going on away from the cage this year. Cageside Press noted he mentioned a new baby girl and a surgery earlier in the year, and he dedicated part of his moment to a friend battling cancer. “Fighting here is easy. She’s fighting a different battle, and I want to make sure she has moments with her family as well,” he said.
There’s some family history in this one too. Smith’s father, Gilbert Smith, competed on The Ultimate Fighter 17 and 25. Aaron Bronsteter pointed out on X that Grant was a contestant on the very next season, TUF 18. So the son of a TUF 17 cast member just finished a TUF 18 alum. The sport keeps its own weird ledger.
No next opponent is set, mostly because there’s no contract yet. MMA Fighting suggested the win could push Smith toward top-15 competition soon, which tracks if the paperwork gets done.
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My take: the part I’ll remember is the stance switch. Grant was chipping the lead leg early, the kind of thing a 17-fight UFC veteran uses to slow down a young guy’s entries, and Smith adjusted in real time instead of eating kicks until the corner told him to. One change, and the check hook became available. That’s a fighter solving problems inside a minute. The UFC passed on extending him before this fight. Now they get to pay for that decision, and his agent has a 60-second clip to show at the table.
