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Fight Path: How the Maloofs, front-row UFC tickets kept Nick Smiley on track

nick-smileyNick Smiley is very open to talking about his troubled past. He has done it numerous times, in front of numerous groups.

The worst part? The Georgian doesn’t hesitate much when asked about his lowest point.

“I was mainlining coke, basically shooting up and trying to kill myself because I was too afraid to eat a bullet,” Smiley told MMAjunkie.

It was during a period after the death of his very close uncle, who had given Smiley a livelihood and plenty of life lessons, that he diverged down a darker path. It would eventually end with an arrest and a conviction, including a reason to get clean, while also pushing him toward his new life.

Smiley has taken advantage of the MMA opportunity by compiling a 6-2 record heading into a defense of his Conflict MMA heavyweight title on Saturday against undefeated Adrian Henderson (4-0) in Savannah, Ga. The 30-year-old Smiley will try for his sixth straight win and more distance between himself and the worst part of his life.

It wasn’t always that way for Smiley, who used hard labor as a teenager to teach him life lessons and boxing experience to help himself overcome some bullying in school. Coming from an athletic family – his brother Justin played football at Alabama before his eight-season career in the NFL – Smiley was destined to do something with his athletic ability. He just didn’t find it until his 20s.

By then, he had hard life experiences and was ready to return to the values that his uncle had helped to teach him: hard work, reliability and commitment.

“I was destined for this sport,” he said. “I really believe that, that things have happened to help me get here and make me ready to do this. This is what I was meant to do.”

A difficult path

Smiley was born and raised in Ellabell, Ga., where his stepfather, uncle and family made hard work part of his life.

He was athletic just like the other members of his family, mixing his baseball and football practices and games with the usual outdoor activities of a young kid in the south. But life was more about work than pastimes.

“I do inspirational speaking now, and I talk about intestinal fortitude and how to work for everything you get,” Smiley said. “I’ve had to work for everything I have. Even if fighting doesn’t work out for me, I know I have a strong back and two good hands and I can make something of myself.”

Starting when he was 14 years old, he joined the family business of asphalt and construction. His uncle ran the company, and he put Smiley right to work with grown men throwing around asphalt and concrete in the heat.

Smiley’s stepfather provided the same gritty mentality, and his uncle served as an example of rebounding from a tough time. He had been in a car crash in 1979 and acquired hepatitis C during a blood transfusion. He died young, at 45, after Smiley had been working for him for about seven years.

“He was the kind of guy who would see how far he could push you before you would break,” he said. “He wanted to know how much you could take. That’s why I know guys in the cage, they won’t break me mentally.”

His uncle’s death, though, was a breaking point for Smiley. He was eventually arrested in 2007 and charged with possession of cocaine and driving under the influence. His plea deal to the possession charge sent him to a detention center for six months, after which he wanted to find a new path.

He thought back to a trip to Las Vegas.

Becoming a competitor

Back up further. When Smiley was in high school, he was timid. He was picked on, even, and his brother and his family helped convince him that boxing lessons would help boost his confidence and allow him to defend himself.

He had a handful of amateur fights and tried Toughman competitions, but it wasn’t something that became a regular part of his life.

Later, in 2005, he was in Las Vegas with his brother, who was early in his NFL career and was nearly as successful at the tables as he was on the field. As Smiley’s story goes, one of the brothers in the ultra-rich, casino- and NBA-owning Maloof family provided a limo ride and noticed Smiley admiring a billboard for a UFC fight in town. He arranged first-row tickets for Smiley, who was from then in love with the sport.

His personal troubles put off any entrance into fighting, but by 2008, as he was working to get clean and find a path following his incarceration, he started his MMA training. He went 7-2 as an amateur before turning pro and hooking up with The HardCore Gym in Athens, Ga.

His pro start was a bit rocky, at 1-2, with a mental lapse against an opponent he had fought as an amateur (tearing his ACL in that previous fight) leading to a submission loss and a week’s-notice fight after that. But he has turned that around with five straight wins.

It hasn’t been easy because of a string of injuries, including a torn labrum, torn bicep tendon and screws in his hands, but Smiley has faced worse circumstances before and learned from them.

“I’m someone who will do what he says and work hard,” he said. “That’s what I’ve learned, that you have to be honest and count on yourself, and that’s what I’m doing in my career.”

Award-winning newspaper reporter Kyle Nagel pens “Fight Path” each week. The column focuses on the circumstances that led fighters to a profession in MMA. Know a fighter with an interesting story? Email us at news [at] mmajunkie.com.

Be sure to visit the MMA Junkie Instagram page and YouTube channel to discuss this and more content with fans of mixed martial arts.

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