Paddy Holohan loses out to Louis Smolka at UFC Dublin

After a raft of injuries which saw Joseph Duffy vs. Dustin Poirier and Stipe Miocic vs. Ben Rothwell cancelled, it was left to Dublin’s own Paddy Holohan to headline the UFC’s third trip to Ireland this Saturday night as he took on dangerous American Louis Smolka over a scheduled three rounds in front of a sell-out crowd in The Point Depot.

Like he always seems to do, Paddy Holohan stared extremely quickly as he shoved Smolka against the fence, swung around to his back and put him on the floor. There Holohan transitioned to side control but had to give it up with Smolka looking for the d’arce choke. Mad scrambles followed that but it was Holohan who landed on top. Smolka, though, got to his feet and landed on top from another mad ground battle as Holohan was active on bottom and threatened with a heel hook. That allowed him to escape and take Smolka down but he snapped back up as they went on trading bombs non-stop towards the end of the round.

The middle period began at slightly less insane of a pace but they soon changed as they traded heavy blows in the pocket. The first takedown attempt came from Holohan but Smolka slipped out and managed to take the back of Holohan. Once they settle on the ground Holohan changed that quickly and reversed the position before attacking with a rear naked choke. Smolka defended well and turned into the guard eventually before having a tight guillotine which he couldn’t finish. Another series of unbelievable scrambles followed that but it was Smolka who got the better of it as he rained down a series of big blows with Holohan giving no answer. Eventually Holohan took too many and as it looked like Marc Goddard was about to step in and stop it, Smolka saved him the job by sinking in the rear naked choke and forcing Holohan to tap.