[1] Smalls spent his early years in the training camp of Muhammad Ali in Deer Lake, Pennsylvania and was featured in Jet magazine in 1973 at age three.

Smalls earned the World Boxing Organization Inter-Contintental Featherweight title in 2003 by defeating Christian Favela.

The following year, he defeated Alvin Brown for the North American Boxing Organization Featherweight Championship.

Smalls upset the boxing establishment when he appeared in the February 2005 issue of High Times magazine, posing for a photo wearing his belts and holding a marijuana bud.

[4] Later that year, he angered ESPN when he showed up to defend his NABO featherweight title bearing a temporary tattoo for Golden Palace, the online casino.