Making it two straight finishes at UFC Vegas was Casey Kenney, who survived several body shots to lock in a guillotine roughly three minutes into the opening round.
Louis Smolka started his first stint in the UFC at flyweight, finding some early success. But a four-fight losing streak saw him cut from the promotion in 2017. After success on the regional scene, he returned to the octagon in late 2018, and has gone 1-2 as a bantamweight thus far.
Saturday night at UFC Vegas, Smolka was paired up with Casey Kenney — himself 1-2 inside the octagon, and coming off the first loss in his UFC tenure, to Merab Dvalishvili.
Early on, Smolka was looking solid, ripping the body. Kenney took center but Smolka was the first to fire a punch down the middle. Kenney answered with a pair of kicks. Smolka kept looking to land the right hand to the body and Kenny landed a solid four punch combination. Casey Kenney then dropped Smolka with hard leg kick, but Smolka was quickly back to his feet.
Smolka kept moving forward and looked to land to the body some more, while Kenney looked to land the counter. It looked as if Smolka’s body shots might become a factor, but Kenney landed a hard counter right. Smolka opted to look for the take down but Kenny locked in the guillotine and reversed position on Smolka. Kenney squeezed the guillotine from the top and forced the tap!
Wobbles him then sinks in the choke! 🤯@CKMMA135 with the quick night in the office!#UFCVegas ➡️ LIVE on @ESPN pic.twitter.com/tZbZgXbEWu
— UFC (@ufc) May 30, 2020
A big finish for Kenney, against an experienced opponent in Louis Smolka. And the second finish in two fights to open the UFC Vegas card.
Official Result: Casey Kenney def. Louis Smolka by submission (guillotine choke), Round 1, 3:03
