Louis Smolka Reflects on His Previous Loss to Brandon Moreno

MMAjunkie recently spoke to UFC flyweight fighter Louis Smolka ahead of his upcoming bout with Ray Borg at UFC 207. The fight is set for December 30 in Las Vegas, Nevada. Below are some highlights.

Smolka on coming off a loss to Brandon Moreno: “I should have researched better. I thought he was a boxing-based fighter, so when I shot that outside single(-leg takedown), I thought he would try to just stuff the shot or whatever. But he was actually a grappling-based fighter, and I didn’t know that because I only watched the highlights of his one fight on (‘The Ultimate Fighter 24’). I didn’t even watch the whole fight. I just watched the highlights. I just assumed he was a boxer and a volume puncher.”

On coping with the loss by drinking: “I drank for about a month. I kind of just stared at the bottom of a shot glass for about a month, and I felt sorry for myself. You kind of have to. If you care about this sport, when you do lose, you’re going to cry. That’s just how it is. We give it our all, and I had to feel bad about myself for a while and had to go cry in a corner. (Getting) the next fight helps, but you get to a point where you ask yourself, ‘Am I going to sit here and cry forever? Or am I going to pick up the pieces and move on?’ There’s a suitable mourning period. It’s like when you break up with a girl. There’s a suitable mourning period, and then you get over it.”

Smolka on what he expects against Borg: “I want to say we should go pretty much everywhere. Flyweight fights are very well-rounded, we scrap, and we do a lot of transitions between positions. I assume we go everywhere.”