Jesse “Kid Hercules” Forbes is best known for his short stint on TUF 3 in 2006, and made his way back to the UFC this past January after scoring 11 wins (including 4 submissions and 5 knockouts) and just 2 losses outside the UFC since his 2006 loss to Matt Hamill.
Unfortunately, Forbes is now fighting outside the UFC again after a controversial split decision loss to Nick Catone at UFN 20 and a submission loss to Ryan Jensen at UFC 114. “Forbes’ eyes are firmly fixed ahead. I just want to get back on a win streak and go back to the UFC,” he said.
His last fight was against the very tough Anthony “Lionheart” Smith in Fargo, North Dakota at Crowbar MMA’s Fall Brawl. The fight took place on September 11th. The first round was challenging for Forbes. “I came out in the first round half asleep and wound up getting kicked in the face during the first minute of action,” he recalled. He closed the distance and tried to regain his bearings. When the ref pressed for action, Forbes attempted to jump onto Smith’s back but slipped, spending the rest of the round pressed against the cage.
In what appears to be a pattern according to sources close to BJJ Legends, Anthony Smith was extremely unprofessional throughout the fight. “The whole first round he just talked shit to me rather than do any real damage (besides the face kick),” Forbes explained. “I think he was more set on running his mouth than actually fighting.”
After the round was over, Forbes was furious with both his performance and the behavior of his opponent. He went back to his corner, and did not say a single word—his corner, Seth Baczynski, just put cold water on him and instructed him to “stop messin’ around with this guy, “
Forbes took his corner’s advice and walked right out in the second round with a big combo followed by a kick. Smith shot in and Forbes responded by sprawling and stuffing Smith into the cage, followed by a few big shots. “(I) felt that he was breaking so I went after him hard,” Forbes said. “I punched and elbowed and punch and elbowed until I passed to side control. From there I landed a few more shots before I passed to mount. Once in mount he tried to kick off the cage but it was all but unsuccessful. I started raining down big elbows, straight punches and hammer fists. One elbow came down so hard it broke his forearm. (I just know this because we went to the same hospital afterward and he was screaming about it). I continued to bring down hard punches and elbows and the ref finally stopped the fight.”
Forbes won the fight by TKO (punches) 1:28 into the second round, putting an end to Smith’s 3-fight winning streak.
In addition to his MMA career and wrestling background, Forbes has competed quite a bit in BJJ. A 4X Arizona State Champion (2007, 2008, 2009 and 2010), Forbes is also a 2006 U.S. National Champion (Blue Belt/Heavy), 2008 Pan Jiu-Jitsu Champion (Blue Belt/Heavy) and 2009 Grapplers Quest Champion (No-Gi/Advanced/Heavy).
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