Louis Smolka Out Of UFC 264 Bout With Sean O’Malley Due To Staph Infection
Louis Smolka is out of his UFC 264 bout with Sean O’Malley after a recently contracted staph infection has forced him off the card. Ariel Helwani broke the news on twitter last night tweeting “Louis Smolka is out of next weekend’s UFC 264 fight versus Sean O’Malley, sources say. Undisclosed injury. They were scheduled to be on the PPV main card. UFC is hoping to keep O’Malley on the card, I’m told, but no new opponent locked in yet.”
Smolka’s team went on to disclose that the injury was a staph infection to ESPN shortly after the news was broken.
Louis Smolka is out of next weekend’s UFC 264 fight versus Sean O’Malley, sources say. Undisclosed injury. They were scheduled to be on the PPV main card.
UFC is hoping to keep O’Malley on the card, I’m told, but no new opponent locked in yet.
— Ariel Helwani (@arielhelwani) June 29, 2021
O’Malley vs Smolka was set to kick off the main card for Dustin Poirier vs Conor McGregor 3 on 10th July. Now, the UFC will have to search for a suitable replacement for O’Malley, in order to keep the rising Bantamweight contender climbing in the right direction. Nothing has been confirmed as of yet, although it will likely be a hard task to find a worthy adversary for O’Malley on such short notice.
In his last outing, O’Malley defeated Thomas Almeida via third round knockout at UFC 260 in March. The Arizona resident is 13-1 overall with his last three wins coming by way of KO/TKO. Smolka’s record currently stands at 17-7, winning three of his last five in the UFC. Last time out, he had his hand raised against José Alberto Quiñónez at UFC Fight Night: Rodriguez vs Stephens with a second round TKO finish.
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