UFC Fight Night 55 results: Louis Smolka stuns Richie Vaculik with third-round head kick

SYDNEY – Louis Smolka spent a couple rounds getting mostly beat up by Richie Vaculik before he decided, apparently, that enough was enough.

Not able to fully land a few fancy-looking head kicks in the first two rounds, Smolka (8-1 MMA, 2-1 UFC) landed a step-in side kick with a heel right to Vaculik’s (10-2 MMA, 1-1 UFC) head, and 18 seconds into the third round he had a TKO victory.

The welterweight bout was part of the preliminary card of today’s UFC Fight Night55 event at Allphones Arena in Sydney. It streamed on UFC Fight Pass.

Smolka kicked high to open, but it served as more of a feeling-out kick. But Vaculik just 30 seconds in landed a big set of punches, and appeared to have Smolka hurt early. He let off, then quickly came back with more. Smolka worked through it and tried to land some front kicks that missed. Vaculik kept pushing forward trying to catch Smolka with something, and he did repeatedly.

But Smolka fired back, too, and midway through the round he was right in the pocket – bloodied, but throwing. Thirty seconds later, he found a home for two rights – but Vaculik brought him to his knees by kicking his legs out. Smolka got back to his feet and tried to answer with a knee that brought some oohs from the crowd, but didn’t do much to stop Vaculik. A Smolka high kick was dodged by Vaculik, and he used it to take Smolka down with 55 seconds left. Vaculik passed to side control, and he nearly got a guillotine choke in during a scramble. But he couldn’t hold it.

Vaculik landed an early jab as Smolka landed a right uppercut, and then he had to block a left high kick from the Hawaiian. Smolka tried to get inside, but Vaculik made him pay with a combination. And when Smolka again looked for an axe kick, Vaculik took him down to the canvas and went after a rear-naked choke. He couldn’t get it under the chin, though, and Smolka reversed to get on top. The fight wasn’t on the ground for long. Back on the feet, it was Vaculik who continued to be just a step ahead as Smolka’s face kept showing it.

Smolka landed a stepping side kick quickly into the third round. Vaculik fell to the canvas in a heap, and Smolka jumped all over him. He went for the kill, and he got it. He needed nine punches on the ground before referee John Sharp stopped the fight.

Smolka is back in the win column after a May loss to Chris Cariaso. Vaculik now has dropped two of his past three.

Up-to-the-minute UFC Fight Night 55 results include:

For complete coverage of UFC 179, check out the UFC Events section of the site.

(MMAjunkie correspondent Michael Spencer contributed to this report on site in Sydney.)