Louis Smolka was disappointed he couldn’t fight Sean O’Malley at UFC 264 but is glad he is fighting before the year is up.
Smolka was supposed to fight O’Malley in July, but an infection forced him out of the fight. For the Hawaiian, when he had to pull out of the bout, he was upset and frustrated as he knew it would be a big fight for him.
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“It sucked, man. It sucked, straight up, I wanted to fight him. I don’t know dude, I wasn’t fit, I had an infection so I had to pull out,” Smolka said on Just Scrap Radio on BJPENN.com. “Whatever, I’ll get back there, I’ll make my way to the top one way or another.”
Once he was forced out of the fight, Louis Smolka made it clear he wanted to fight one more time this year. Yet, when he got the fight offer to face Vince Morales on December 4 at UFC Vegas 44, Smolka didn’t want to take it.
Smolka’s main training partner is Ricky Simon who is Morales’ cousin. With that, he would put Simon in a weird spot, however, the UFC made it clear this was the fight they wanted to make.
“Yeah, I didn’t want the fight initially but this is what we are doing. It’s kind of weird. I was teasing him, I was telling him he’s a double-agent, Smolka said. “It’s awkward honestly, but we are professionals. We are all trying to get paid and fight. This is how it has to be.”
Although Smolka didn’t want the fight initially, after doing training camp to prepare for him, he is confident he will not only win the fight but will get the stoppage win.
“I just think I’m a little better everywhere, honestly… I want to finish him, I think I only have two decisions in my 17 wins,” Smolka said. “I’m trying to finish the fight all the time and I’m hoping to get the finish.”
If Smolka does get the stoppage win over Morales, the hope for him is to get a quick turnaround. The plan is to be as active as possible in 2022 and possibly end the year fighting a ranked opponent.
“I would like that. We have to see, I’m trying not to get ahead of myself. I’m just focusing on the task at hand, so ideally I get out healthy I would like to fight against fairly soon. I’m probably like two or three more wins and we are looking at ranked guys,” Smolka concluded.
Do you think Louis Smolka will finish Vince Morales?