UFC 207's Louis Smolka 'stared at the bottom of a shot glass' to get over recent upset loss

Louis Smolka is owning every aspect of his surprise loss to Brandon Moreno earlier this year. He said he didn’t do his homework for the fight, so he suffered one of the year’s most stunning upsets when he was caught with a first-round submission.

Smolka was originally supposed to fight Sergio Pettis at UFC Fight Night 96 in October. The fight fell apart just weeks out, though, and Moreno was pegged as a replacement. Smolka carried a four-fight winning streak into the event and was moving toward title contention, but then came the loss.

Smolka (11-2 MMA, 5-2 UFC) said he’s learned from the loss and won’t make the same mistake for his upcoming UFC 207 bout with fellow flyweight Ray Borg (9-2 MMA, 3-2 UFC).

“I should have researched better,” Smolka told MMAjunkie. “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.”

Although Smolka has lost before, Moreno was arguably his first true defeat. He dropped a split decision to Chris Cariaso at UFC Fight Night 40 in May 2014, but it could’ve been scored in his favor without much controversy.

Smolka was finished in decisive fashion against Moreno, though, and he said the only was to get past the result was to embrace the hurt.

“I drank for about a month,” Smolka said. “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.”

Once Smolka, No. 14 the latest USA TODAY Sports/MMAjunkie MMA flyweight rankings, was done feeling sorry for himself and was booked against No. 15-ranked Borg, he said life started to fall back into place. Their flyweight bout opens the pay-per-view main card on Dec. 30 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas following prelims on FS1 and UFC Fight Pass.

On paper, Smolka and Borg have attempted the most submissions in UFC flyweight history, which indicates a grappling-heavy fight could be on the horizon. Smolka said he would be happy to engage Borg on the ground, but he’s not going to limit his attacks to a single area.

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

Prior to his recent loss, Smolka was gaining momentum as a future challenger to UFC flyweight champion and pound-for-pound king Demetrious Johnson. Smolka said he still considers himself a threat to “Mighty Mouse,” but he’s aware that losing to Moreno marked a hurdle.

Smolka said a victory over Borg won’t put him back in the same position he was earlier this year, but it’s the first step toward getting there.

“It’s like, ‘I’m a one-fight winning streak; give me Demetrious.’ No,” Smolka said. “I think I could maybe ask for like a top-10 (opponent) after this and maybe a legitimate No. 6-10 guy at the highest. Then after that a top-five guy, and then I could maybe get the title shot because I would have rebuilt myself.”

For more on UFC 207, check out the UFC Rumors section of the site.