Colton Smith: Fighting for Freedom, Faith, and Family
Many service members and veterans have found a home in the world of martial arts. It’s changed lives and helped soldiers handle stress during and after their service as they transition back to civilian life. For one gym owner and entrepreneur, he’s united the two with other motivations and contributions to leave a special impact in the world.
Meet Colton Smith: an active duty Infantryman with 20+ years of service in 44+ countries, The Ultimate Fighter season 16 champion, co-founder of Enlisted Nine Fight Company, and so much more. His life journey through the military and martial arts is intertwined in more ways than one.
“There’s a symbiotic relationship [between the military and martial arts] because we are tasked with certain times where we have to go hands-on with people,” Smith said. “So, I think that I’ve always known from a very young age [in the military] the importance of honing my craft and knowing the importance of Jiu-Jitsu and martial arts as a whole.”
While martial arts skills are useful in the military, the connection they have with Colton goes much further. They were brought together by his childhood and steadfast faith.
“You could say I had a rough upbringing in certain aspects. Luckily I had a single mother who raised me (who’s a dynamite mom and an even better grandmother), my grandfather, and the sport of wrestling. And the byproduct of having those individuals in my life – my wrestling coach, my mom, and my grandfather – led me to Christ… I wholeheartedly believe that where I’m at in life, I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for my faith.”
Colton’s Christian faith has been a major part of his life from the beginning. This included his service. He felt his calling was to join the military – signing up at just 17 years old, his mom was required to grant him legal permission. From that moment on, Colton used his strong conviction, past life experiences, and martial arts background to become one of one.
During his service, Colton amassed a long list of accolades, including earning:
- Ranger Tab
- Sapper Tab
- Combat Infantry Badge (CIB)
- Expert Infantryman Badge (EIB)
- Airborne and Air Assault badges
- Serving in positions from Rifleman to Company First Sergeant
- Special Operations Combatives Instructor
- Combatives Master Trainer
- Congressional Liaison
- Combatives Black Belt (Less than 20 in existence)
While reaching the highest levels in the military as an Infantryman, Colton was also cementing his name in martial arts history.
Through the The Ultimate Fighter TV show, he became the first-ever active-duty service member to fight in the UFC. Colton was invited to season 16 of the show, living in a Las Vegas mansion with 31 other fighters until one winner remained.
Despite personally ranking himself among the bottom of the group in terms of skill, Colton still came away as the season 16 champion while on active duty. In his 54-day stay, he was able to utilize his experience in tough situations in the military, a newfound free time to persevere against tough competition.
“As the show progressed, I saw some of these guys unfortunately break mentally. It wasn’t that they weren’t better fighters than me — because most of them probably were to be honest with you — but I was getting better. I was gaining steam as the show went on because I was like, ‘Oh man, I can do this. I’m training full-time. I’m eating right. I’m doing the right things. Just focusing on fighting.’ And that’s why I was successful. Ultimately it was kind of a perfect storm.”
While many believed Colton was given special permission by the military to join the show, he really joined with his time off. He had never trained full-time and hadn’t considered it much up until this moment. Now, as a recognized high-level fighter he had a choice to make: diving completely into the world of martial arts or continuing his service while training on the side. It wasn’t an easy call to make.
“When I won the Ultimate Fighter, it was a really tough decision to stay in [the Army]. I had this thing deep inside of me that knew there’s more that the Army had to offer me and more that I had to offer the Army.”
The historic champion decided to continue his service for more than a decade after his title. While he knew he couldn’t train full-time while in the Army, he wouldn’t stop training entirely. Colton has made it his life’s duty to be the best he can be in more than one area.
“Conventional wisdom would tell you that you need to focus on one, maybe two things. For me, I’m trying to [excel] at all of them. You’ll fall short sometimes doing that, but I can’t help that burning desire in my heart, my God-birth dream if you will, that keeps me going, keeps me wanting to continue to battle.”
His achievement as the first-and-only active-duty member to fight in the UFC was exceptional in its own right. In fact, the impact he would make in the martial arts and military world would become even more profound shortly after.
Sadly, Fort Hood in Texas suffered its second shooting on April 2, 2014, claiming the lives of four soldiers. The attack left the families of the fallen and injured in sorrow and struggling with financial crisis during a difficult and heartbreaking time. Wanting to help those affected, Colton co-founded Enlisted Nine Fight Company – originally as a t-shirt brand honoring the nine enlisted ranks in the military – alongside Dan O’Brien. They were able to raise funds for all those affected, assisting however they could.
“When the second Fort Hood shooting happened, there were so many families that were affected by it that the Fisher House was full. We were trying to raise money so we could put the families of the fallen and the injured in hotels in the local area in Killeen. So that’s where that’s where it all started.”
Colton capitalized on his likeness from The Ultimate Fighter, helping families in need and creating Enlisted Nine Fight Company in the process. What started as a philanthropic journey turned into a whole new avenue in the world of martial arts.
“It was a thing where we saw how quickly the community bonded together. They liked the shirts. [Dan] is an amazing artist, and he was able to drop some more shirts. Then it kind of blew up into a lifestyle brand and got nationally recognized. From there, I kept the naming convention for the gyms.”
In March 2020 – right before the COVID-19 outbreak – Colton opened his first academy location in Fredericksburg, Virginia with co-founder Richard Pasinski. The two battled through the pandemic and created a special home for martial artists, service members, veterans, and anyone else needing martial arts in their lives. Since then, two other brick-and-mortar locations have opened (in Edgewater, Maryland and Hagerstown, Maryland – with two other future locations possibly opening) as well as government locations in the Pentagon, Department of Homeland Security, Coast Guard Headquarters, and Guantanamo Bay.
While they’ve expanded on local and governmental scales, Enlisted Nine Fight Company has stayed true to its roots. They have continued to change lives, prioritizing therapeutic training and philanthropic efforts over profits.
“We are constantly trying to give back not only to We Defy, not only to some larger charities and for veterans and for service members, but also law enforcement officers, teachers, and a lot of local [charities] as well. We’re constantly doing backpack drives and toy drives. We’ve also helped people that are displaced with finding some houses. We’ve even had people stay with us for a few months at a time just trying to help people get back on their feet through troubling times.”
For Colton and Richard, it’s all about helping others. They are proud to assist individuals from all walks of life – addicts to lawyers and everything in between. One of the groups Colton is passionate about supporting is veterans. He sees Jiu-Jitsu as a resource to help soldiers who are working through everything they’ve gone through during their service. The martial art has made a big impact on many military members, including himself.
“This is my outlet. It’s something I never fully grasped, why I didn’t suffer from some of the mental impairments (PTSD or PTS) [as other veterans]. A lot of my Ranger buddies have fallen victim to that, just allowed demons to take over their life and either went down a dark path or unfortunately, they’re not here with us anymore because of it… Finding a good, constructive outlet [is important] and that for me has been fighting, it’s been coaching, and just being in the gym. It’s a positive outlook that you can kind of turn a negative thing into something that can definitely change your life in a positive way.”
The drastic influence Jiu-Jitsu can have on veterans is huge for Colton.
“I love what the sport of Jiu-Jitsu and martial arts have done for veterans and then how that’s all tied together into mental health awareness, suicide awareness, suicide prevention, and being able to combine all the things that I love in my life professionally and brought them together into one place.”
As Colton continues to change lives, he has continued to be a man who travels many different paths. Through his faith, family, military, and martial arts ventures, he’s stayed true to who he is.
“It’s because of my faith that I have these burning desires in my heart to not only be a high-level athlete, an entrepreneur, a father, husband, Christian man, but also be a warfighter at the highest levels as well.”
His long journey is still going, but it will soon close one door. With over two decades serving in the military, Colton has an exit strategy in place to end his time in uniform soon. This will open the opportunity for him to expand his time in other areas of life.
Colton plans to spend more time with his wife and children while diving further into his work on the mats. He is ready to be more available for all students, providing them with high-level instruction and a mentor to go to in times of need.
On top of that, we can soon expect to see the former The Ultimate Fighter Champion and Arnold Schwarzenegger “Out of the Ring” Award Winner on the mats with the best Jiu-Jitsu grapplers around the globe.
“This year is the first year I’m able to go to Pans and then I’m going to go to Master Worlds as well. I won Pans… It’s time to go win Master Worlds here in September. My body’s feeling good. I’m ready to go.”
Time will tell, but there’s a good chance Colton will add more accolades to his already illustrious resume. Nevertheless, that’s not what’s important to him. He is determined to continue being the best person he can be in every single aspect of his life.
“I’m not big on living in my own museum. My gym does have a lot of medals and all that stuff up on the walls and fight posters and everything else, but I don’t love living in my own museum. It’s all about what I did today, what I’m going to do tomorrow to validate my credentials as a coach, as a father, as a husband, as a Christian, as a soldier, as a leader, as a fighter.”
