UFC on FOX 24 results: Tim Elliott's relentless takedowns lead to unanimous win vs. Louis Smolka

KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Over the course of their three rounds in the cage together, Tim Elliott and Louis Smolka occupied just about every grappling position possible, and a few they may have invented on the spot.

In the end, it was the takedown game of Elliott (14-7-1 MMA, 3-5 UFC) that made the difference, earning him a unanimous decision win over Smolka (11-4 MMA, 5-4 UFC) with a clean sweep on the scorecards.

The flyweight bout was part of the preliminary card of today’s UFC on FOX 24 event at Sprint Center in Kansas City, Mo. It aired on FOX following additional prelims on UFC Fight Pass and ahead of a main card on FOX.

For Elliott, the takedowns came early, often and borderline easy. What proved much tougher was controlling Smolka once the fight hit the mat. Smolka created one scramble after another off his back, using creative sweeps and submission attempts to reverse Elliott again and again.

“I felt really sluggish, slow,” Elliott said. “I was surprised at how fast he was. I had a really, really good camp, and I don’t have any excuses. I don’t know if it was nerves or fighting in my hometown or what, but I felt like I was fighting in quicksand.”

But Elliott stayed on the attack and kept planting Smolka off his back, even using some of the scrambles Smolka initiated in order to threaten with submissions of his own. A mounted guillotine in the second round seemed to have Smolka in some trouble, and at least one rear-naked choke attempt seemed initially promising.

Smolka battled his way out of every bad position, and usually right into a good one. While that made for an entertaining back and forth, it didn’t do him any favors on the scorecards, since Elliott was the aggressor, controlling the action for the bulk of every round.

When the fight went to the judges, that approach translated into a clear victory, with all three judges giving the fight to Elliott with scores of 30-27 across the board.

Elliot’s win is the first since his failed flyweight title bid in December. Smolka has now lost three in a row.

Up-to-the-minute UFC on FOX 24 results include:

• Tim Elliott def. Louis Smolka via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)
• Aljamain Sterling def. Augusto Mendes via unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28)
• Devin Clark def. Jake Collier via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-26)
• Anthony Smith def. Andrew Sanchez via knockout (knee, punches) – Round 3, 3:52
• Zak Cummings def. Nathan Coy via submission (guillotine choke) – Round 1, 4:21
• Ketlen Vieira def. Ashlee Evans-Smith via unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 30-27)

For complete coverage UFC on FOX 24, check out the UFC Events section of the site.

(MMAjunkie’s Matt Erickson and Simon Samano contributed to this report on site in Kansas City.)