Scott Smith May Be the Toughest Guy in MMA For 2009

Smith got worked over pretty good by Benji Radach before scoring a controversial (at least according to the Radach camp) knockout to pull victory from the jaws of defeat at their April 11 Strikeforce bout.

Radach had a second-round guillotine cinched up tight on Smith, and says he felt Smith grab the cage to help him ease out of Radach’s grip.

Radach added that he heard referee Herb Dean say something to Smith about grabbing the fence.

“If Scott hadn’t gotten a hold of the cage—which is blatantly against the rules—I think I would have finished him there,” Radach says.

Ultimately, Smith recovered, by hook or by crook, and knocked Radach onto Queer Street.

In his next fight, after nearly three complete rounds of being pummeled and moved around the cage at the whim of Muay Thai specialist Cung Le, Scott Smith reached down into that place that very few fighters have ever found and came up with an answer yet again.

“This was one helluva fight,’’ Smith said after the fight. “He had me the first two-and-a-half rounds, but I’ve got a hard head. On the knockdown, I faked the right and threw the left. Everyone always looks for my right, but the left hook is my best punch.”

That’s what gets Hands of Steel my vote as the Toughest Man in MMA for 2009…

Lest you think I’m going for hyperbole here (or I’m some kind of Scott Smith homer) I give Wanderlei Silva – for his war with Rich Franklin – and Benson Henderson for toughing it out against Donald Cerrone – my Honorable Mention nods.