SACRAMENTO, Calif. – Asked whether she felt she was fighting for her job in a UFC on FOX 22 meeting with Irene Aldana, Leslie Smith initially said she absolutely did, and that’s always the case when you fight in the octagon.

What she was really talking about, though, was the precarious position she’d put herself in as an outspoken advocate of organizing fighters.

“When you asked me earlier if I felt like my back was against the wall, you, I thought, were asking because of my last loss against (Cris) ‘Cyborg’ (Justino),” she clarified later while speaking to MMAjunkie backstage at Golden 1 Center in Sacramento, Calif. “But in my head, that was compounded by my very public stance on fighters associations and the unions.”

Smith has aligned herself with just about every effort to unite UFC and MMA fighters into a collective body, voicing support for the MMA Fighters Association, Professional Fighters Association, and, most recently, the MMA Athletes Association. In the case of the latter, she spoke of a two-hour meeting with figurehead Bjorn Rebney and said the association’s plan was “not exactly the one I would have chosen.”

Still, she remains committed to the idea of getting fighters together for better protections outside the cage, including meaningful health insurance to cover the injuries that come along with a bruising career.

She felt that put her in a potentially tough spot with the UFC, which has alternated its stance on unions from neutral to antagonistic as several different efforts have come to light. So when she walked into the cage on Saturday against Aldana, a win wasn’t the only thing she felt she was fighting for.

Thankfully for her, Aldana (7-3 MMA, 0-1 UFC) wasn’t able to stop her momentum. Smith (9-7-1 MMA, 3-3 UFC) upset the Mexican prospect over three rounds with an aggressive attack to take home a unanimous decision in the FS1-televised preliminary-card fight.

“I definitely felt like I needed to get this win in order to keep myself in the game because I felt like I put a target on my back, which isn’t the goal,” said Smith, who also took home a $50,000 “Fight of the Night” bonus check. “For the record, I love being in the UFC. I love everything the UFC has done for the sport. They are the vehicle that’s brought MMA to the masses, and I appreciate that.

“I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for the UFC. I want to keep working with them. I just want to make it a fair playing ground, and I think once labor issues are solved, then just like all the other major sports, the numbers are going to go through the roof.”

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