Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) Flyweight grapplers Louis Smolka and Brandon Moreno threw down last night (Oct. 1, 2016) at UFC Fight Night 96 inside Moda Center in Portland, Oregon.
Smolka has shown a ton of potential in his short UFC career, winning all but one of his prior contests. Last night, Smolka was simply looking to defend his top 10 position and add another finish to his resume.
Meanwhile, Moreno accepted this contest on short-notice and was looking to make the most of this opportunity. The Mexican athlete proved himself a scrappy warrior on The Ultimate Fighter (TUF), and he lived up to that reputation quickly. Moreno ignored his opponent’s fancy footwork with a quick combination of punches to the head and body. Smolka looked to find his range and throw lengthy kicks, but Moreno wasted little time in scoring a takedown from the clinch.
From top position, Moreno did a nice job keeping his opponent flat while landing some nice punches. To his credit, Smolka was completely calm and hunting for submissions, but he chose to scramble up into a takedown after a couple minutes of being on bottom.
While hunting for the takedown, Smolka switched to a high-crotch/head outside single leg. From that position, he tried to dump his opponent and failed to defend the guillotine when his opponent latched on.
Smolka tried to fight the choke off once he hit the mat, scrambling and falling to his back to avoid. However, Moreno did an excellent job of preventing his opponent from stalling the choke, yanking on his opponent’s neck with all his might until the tap came.
This was an ideal showing for Moreno, who stepped in on short-notice to blow his opponent out of the water. Usually, the problem with filling in early is that a fighter gasses, but that’s not a problem when the fight ends so quickly.
Moreno fought very smartly. Smolka has shown in previous bouts that he doesn’t like to be pressured or boxed up from inside the pocket, and that’s precisely what Moreno looked to do while on the feet. Then, he capitalized on an odd position to score a takedown.
From there, Moreno’s own jiu-jitsu experience took over.
This is a big win, and it puts Moreno inside the top 15. In all likelihood, it would still be best for Moreno to face off with a fellow TUF competitor in his next bout, as he’s still just 22 years old.
Meanwhile, Smolka had a really bad night at the office. His strength has always been overwhelming opponents over time, and he was taken out far too quickly to really make use of his great conditioning.
Ultimately, the finish came due to a simple mistake. While finishing that variation of the single leg, the guillotine is serious threat. To avoid it, Smolka needed to keep his weight up tall and try to let his opponent slide off, or push deeper into the choke and turn it into a guard pass (Jake Shields-style).
Instead, he waited to defend, and he suffered the consequences.
Now, Smolka will have to put together a whole new win streak. He’s young and talented enough to do so, but it’s still a considerable setback for the Hawaiian.
Last night, Brandon Moreno upset his foe with a slick guillotine choke. Where will the prospect head from here?
For complete UFC Fight Night 96: "Dodson vs Lineker" results and play-by-play, click HERE!