Louis Smolka broke down in tears immediately after submitting Su Mudaerji on Saturday in his return to the UFC.
“Da Last Samurai” tapped out Mudaerji with an armbar midway through the second round of the first fight at UFC Beijing. The fight marked Smolka’s return to the big leagues; the former UFC flyweight contender moved up to bantamweight on two weeks’ notice.
After four losses in a row, the UFC parted ways with Smolka at the end of 2017. The Hawaiian returned to the regional circuit, where he picked up three straight wins, punching his ticket back to the UFC.
“I was so happy it was done,” Smolka said of his return fight in an interview with Bloody Elbow. “I was like, ‘Oh my god, it’s over. I’m back. Thank you. I’m so happy I’m done.’ It was a lot of emotions.”
Fighters typically want to win in the most impressive way possible; usually that means winning by stoppage, often in the first round, in a one-sided affair. Though Smolka’s win over Mudaerji was rather dominant, he said considering the stakes of his return, he would have taken the win any way he could have gotten it.
“It wasn’t my best performance, but in situations like that, it’s hard to look good any way you look at it,” Smolka said. “It would be hard for me to go out there against a guy who’s completely unheralded and have that go any way that makes me look good. I got hit maybe like twice, and I’ve seen people like, ‘Oh man, he can’t strike, he got punched in the head twice.’”
In hopes of making it back under the Octagon’s bright lights sooner than later, Smolka made a few life changes after his UFC release. He gave up drinking and moved himself and his family — his wife Yumi and daughter Lucy — to California from Hawaii to train at Team Oyama. Smolka spent four months in California without his family before they moved, too.
“I gave up so much,” Smolka said. … “It’s been hard, just wondering if everything’s gonna pay off, if I am actually gonna be able to make it back, if I am gonna be able to make it back before I run out of money.”
Smolka said before re-signing with the UFC, he nearly “gave up” on the sport and found a real job, because his family’s funds were running low. In his last fight at a CXF event in California, he made $1,500 for a second-round win over Kyle Estrada. He also got an extra $750 because his opponent missed weight. But that doesn’t compare to what he made in the UFC.
Financially, he said, returning to the UFC is a big relief.
“It’s a lot of stress off our shoulders,” Smolka said. “Yumi was literally in the kitchen baking cookies day in and day out to make our rent. While she does love to do that, she was taking on literally as much as she could do. She was pushing herself to the point of exhaustion.
“With me training all the time, it was a lot on our family. To have that be done now is great. She’s still gonna continue her business and baking and stuff, but now it’s not a mad rush to make the rush. She can do it at her pace. It’s a lot more relaxed. Everything is just more relaxed now. It’s easier. A lot of weight is off my shoulders from the past year.”
With the days of the UFC flyweight division numbered, it seems likely the rest of Smolka’s UFC career will play out at bantamweight. UFC Beijing marked Smolka’s first fight at 135 pounds since 2013. Because of the short notice, he wasn’t entirely accustomed to the heavier weight class, but it all worked out in the end. Smolka, who as a flyweight walked around at about 145 pounds, said he plans to “bulk up” ahead of his next fight. He plans to start walking around at 150 to 155 pounds as a bantamweight.
“My power felt good, my speed felt good,” Smolka said. “But it’s not all about how hard you can hit; it’s about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward. I’ll have to see how well I can take punches, how my durability is. I think I’ll be OK. I gotta put on a little bit of size, just to make sure I’m not getting out-muscled and I’m the same size as everyone. I think I’ll be fine.”
Smolka said fighting at 135 pounds will likely boost his performances, because he doesn’t have to focus as much on the weight cut as he did as a flyweight. Instead, he can focus on improving his skills as a fighter.
Ultimately, now a bantamweight, Smolka has a lot less to worry about. He said fighting in the heavier weight class takes “a lot off my chest.”
“It’s a little bit more confidence for me,” Smolka said. “At 125, I’m cutting down to skin and bones. I have no muscle left on my frame. I’m like, ‘F-ck, I might really die here. I might die. I don’t have anything left.’
“At 125 pounds, with my frame the way that it is and not having any muscle on it, I can’t be fast. I just physically can’t. There are dudes that are natural athletes and move better than me, but if I have muscle, I can close some of that gap. I won’t be as fast as them, but I can make up for it a little bit. But when I’m skin and bones, I can’t really do anything to be quick. I don’t have muscle to move my body. If I go up in weight and I put on my muscle, I’ll be able to move quicker, because I’ll have muscle to move my body around.”
The five-foot-nine Smolka said even if the 125-pound division stuck around, he probably wouldn’t have lasted in the weight class much longer.
“125 is as low as I can go,” Smolka said. ‘If the weight class is 124, I can’t make it. That’s as low as I can get.”