Davey Boy Smith Jr. reflects on getting Batista ready for his MMA fight.
After leaving WWE, Dave Bautista wanted to try his hand at MMA. He would go on to win his only pro fight on October 6, 2012, at CES 13: Real Pain, defeating Vince Lucero.
While training for his pro fight, Batista would have some help from a fellow pro wrestler as Davey Boy Smith Jr. helped train "The Animal." Now, Smith is talking to Fightful's Sean Ross Sapp about his time working with the former WWE World Heavyweight Champion and reacting to Batista's win.
"I helped Dave train for his MMA debut. It’s funny, just a coincidence, he was running his debut and his first fight I was flying to New Japan for my return trip. We were on the plane and while the flight was happening, Low-Ki and I were on the same flight and we had to wait until we landed to check the results. We saw Dave won, which was great. It was a fun fight camp. Myself, Dave, God rest his soul [Stephan Bonnar]—yeah, that’s really too bad—[Eric Albarracin], [Justin McCully]. It was a lot of fun. Glad to be a part of that as well. Dave’s always been a great guy and the type of person that’d give you the shirt off his back. Very giving and nice guy and great training partner," said Smith.
Batista only had one MMA fight but went on to have a very successful career in Hollywood. Batista was a WWE Hall of Fame elect in 2020, but his induction was postponed due to the global COVID-19 pandemic.
Batista recently stated he hopes to be inducted in 2023. Learn more here.
Fans can follow the career of Davey Boy Smith Jr. in MLW as MLW Underground airs every Tuesday on REELZ at 10 PM ET.
Fightful has coverage of all MLW events in our results section.
