Andy Hug v. Patrick Smith Fight Video

The next stop in our look back at the career of Andy Hug takes us to a fight of particular relevance today.

In 1994, K-1 staged their 2nd ever Grand Prix event.  With a 4-0 K-1 record, including a win over the defending GP champion Branko Cikatic, Andy Hug was one of the favorites to win the GP.  His first round opponent was a man familiar to fans of old school MMA (or fans of YAMMA Pit Fighting).  Patrick Smith was a veteran of UFC 1 & 2.  With his only losses coming against Ken Shamrock and Royce Gracie, Smith was one of the stand-outs of those early UFCs.  He entered the K-1 GP as a sort of precursor to Alistair Overeem - the kickboxer turned MMA fighter now facing the big leagues in kickboxing. 

Within moments, Smith accomplished exactly what Overeem did in his first fight with Badr Hari - he shocked the world, easily dispatching Hug in an enormous upset.

A rematch was quickly signed for K-1 Revenge on September 18, 1994.  And, just as in the Hari v. Overeem rematch, the highly partisan crowd was rabid to see their man turn away the MMA challenger.  Check out the full fight below, which begins with footage of their first meeting.

That first kick is awesome, and really shows what kind of trouble Smith is in for here. 

One thing I love about this fight is that it shows the aggressive side of Hug.  Often viewed as more of a technician, he definitely was willing to go hard when needed, and he brings that aggression to the front here in a real destruction of Smith.

As the eyes of the fight sport world are focused on boxing v. MMA in this weekend's Randy Couture v. James Toney showdown, it's worth giving a nod to this fight - one of the earliest clashes between rival sports, and a preview of much that was yet to come.