Ben Nguyen vs Louis Smolka -- A Forgotten War

[EndlessCritic]

I've always been pissed off by the way the UFC treated the majority of their flyweights, especially considering how many of them gave us great wars. Case in point, Ben Nguyen.

Nguyen came to the UFC with a ton of hype coming off a viral video, and started his UFC career 4-1 with 3 finishes. Of those five fights, his loss to Smolka is a must watch, and an underrated classic battle.

 

[jeskola]

I've always been pissed off by the way the UFC treated the majority of their flyweights, especially considering how many of them gave us great wars. Case in point, Ben Nguyen.

Nguyen came to the UFC with a ton of hype coming off a viral video, and started his UFC career 4-1 with 3 finishes. Of those five fights, his loss to Smolka is a must watch, and an underrated classic battle.

What do you mean how they treated them? In that they wanted to shelve the divison before Cejudo? If it is about cutting these two guys, Nguyen was cut off 2 straight losses. He had a shot at putting together a win streak elsewhere and earning his way back but appears to have retired at 31 after losing to Horiguchi in Rizin.

Smolka was cut off a 2-4 streak

 

[EndlessCritic]

What do you mean how they treated them? In that they wanted to shelve the divison before Cejudo? If it is about cutting these two guys, Nguyen was cut off 2 straight losses. He had a shot at putting together a win streak elsewhere and earning his way back but appears to have retired at 31 after losing to Horiguchi in Rizin.

Smolka was cut off a 2-4 streak

Nguyen was an all action fighter who was cut after going 4-3 in the UFC and was a top ranked guy in the world.

 

[Ballsaque]

Remember that fight! Amazing

Both solid midcarders. Smolka had a very interesting fighting style, sucks he couldnt stay off the alcohol

 

[Thesnake101]

Remember that fight! Amazing

Both solid midcarders. Smolka had a very interesting fighting style, sucks he couldnt stay off the alcohol

Worse is that he had his worst UFC performance the one fight the commentators talked about him being sober, against Nicolau. He got dropped 3 times in the first round and remained unable to mount any significant offense for the rest of the fight.

 

[TheMMAnalyst]

Worse is that he had his worst UFC performance the one fight the commentators talked about him being sober, against Nicolau. He got dropped 3 times in the first round and remained unable to mount any significant offense for the rest of the fight.

Nicolau is kind of a sad story too.

At one point he was 9-1in the UFC (19-2-1 record) with wins including Kape/Elliot, then gets smoked by Royval in a title contender fight. Goes on to get KO'd against the cursed Alex Perez and then loses a close decision to Almabayev and gets cut off 3 losses in a row to never fight again.

He was kind of a decision-machine in his wins and wasn't that young any longer by the time the losing streak hit him, but he only lost to the best guys (3 guys ranked in the top 10 of which 2 of were title contenders). Even though he wasn't a fan-favorite or anything he always seemed like a nice guy, felt bad to watch him to go out like that.

 

[FilipEmoFights]

I've always been pissed off by the way the UFC treated the majority of their flyweights, especially considering how many of them gave us great wars. Case in point, Ben Nguyen.

Nguyen came to the UFC with a ton of hype coming off a viral video, and started his UFC career 4-1 with 3 finishes. Of those five fights, his loss to Smolka is a must watch, and an underrated classic battle.

Yes man as a flyweight/bantumweight (originally featherweight) myself there was literally no hope of getting anywhere near the UFC until the WEC got bought (and I would have loved to make it to the wec) but the UFC is obviously always the main goal

But yeah it tainted my interest in actually persuing anything more than 4 Ametuer mma bouts and a shit ton of kickboxing as a teen

At 5’3 125-145 to HAVE to know how to fight is almost a prerequisite to existing because it makes you a target (I had a dude hit me in the nuts on the bus and I picked up my violin case and bashed him in the head with it specifically with the hinges side on purpose) when I was like 10 and my dad was like…yeah you’re doing boxing and BJJ…turned out to be a natural which was really cool and then I bullied all the bullies

I was serious about fighting until I got cheated on and she got pregnant AND she was one of my BJJ coaches daughters so that ruined a near familial relationship I had with my gym of over 10 years. By the time I was 22 I left the gym and hated everything about the gym and the sport. And then my back started to hurt and I developed hemmeroids (check out my hemmeroid removal surgery thread I recently made because I’m planning on a BJJ comeback at 32) lol finally got rid of them
But I had to leave the state I lived in and everything

She was a couple weeks pregnant, didn’t know, and fuckin participated in a Muay Thai smoker where she took a bunch of body kicks. I also told her if we ever sparred again I was gonna kick her in the head like she was a man…and that’s when I knew I had to leave…and I cornered this girl in her mma debut too. The kid is like 12 and can barely speak English.

Still mad. The gym I plan on going too is thankfully thousands of miles away from those people and has nothing to do with jinx

 

[Dangun]

 

[Thesnake101]

Nicolau is kind of a sad story too.

At one point he was 9-1in the UFC (19-2-1 record) with wins including Kape/Elliot, then gets smoked by Royval in a title contender fight. Goes on to get KO'd against the cursed Alex Perez and then loses a close decision to Almabayev and gets cut off 3 losses in a row to never fight again.

He was kind of a decision-machine in his wins and wasn't that young any longer by the time the losing streak hit him, but he only lost to the best guys (3 guys ranked in the top 10 of which 2 of were title contenders). Even though he wasn't a fan-favorite or anything he always seemed like a nice guy, felt bad to watch him to go out like that.

The circumstances around the first time he got released (Ortiz sleeping him) were sad too since he seemed like a top notch prospect out of Nova Uniao at the time. Were it not for his chin I think he would've been both a more credible contender and exciting, but a flyweight who got KO'd in all but one of his losses was always going to hit a wall at some point.

Could've definitely settled as a gatekeeper if they didn't release him however.

 

[TheMMAnalyst]

The circumstances around the first time he got released (Ortiz sleeping him) were sad too since he seemed like a top notch prospect out of Nova Uniao at the time. Were it not for his chin I think he would've been both a more credible contender and exciting, but a flyweight who got KO'd in all but one of his losses was always going to hit a wall at some point.

Could've definitely settled as a gatekeeper if they didn't release him however.

They kept Schnell around and he is arguably worse with the same chin problems, but he puts on bangers and gets finishes.

Multitude of variables at play but they give more leeway based on your style it’s pretty clear.

 

[JPOMMA]

Yes man as a flyweight/bantumweight (originally featherweight) myself there was literally no hope of getting anywhere near the UFC until the WEC got bought (and I would have loved to make it to the wec) but the UFC is obviously always the main goal

But yeah it tainted my interest in actually persuing anything more than 4 Ametuer mma bouts and a shit ton of kickboxing as a teen

At 5’3 125-145 to HAVE to know how to fight is almost a prerequisite to existing because it makes you a target (I had a dude hit me in the nuts on the bus and I picked up my violin case and bashed him in the head with it specifically with the hinges side on purpose) when I was like 10 and my dad was like…yeah you’re doing boxing and BJJ…turned out to be a natural which was really cool and then I bullied all the bullies

I was serious about fighting until I got cheated on and she got pregnant AND she was one of my BJJ coaches daughters so that ruined a near familial relationship I had with my gym of over 10 years. By the time I was 22 I left the gym and hated everything about the gym and the sport. And then my back started to hurt and I developed hemmeroids (check out my hemmeroid removal surgery thread I recently made because I’m planning on a BJJ comeback at 32) lol finally got rid of them
But I had to leave the state I lived in and everything

She was a couple weeks pregnant, didn’t know, and fuckin participated in a Muay Thai smoker where she took a bunch of body kicks. I also told her if we ever sparred again I was gonna kick her in the head like she was a man…and that’s when I knew I had to leave…and I cornered this girl in her mma debut too. The kid is like 12 and can barely speak English.

Still mad. The gym I plan on going too is thankfully thousands of miles away from those people and has nothing to do with jinx

What part of the world was this in? Since you mentioned the kid barely speaking English.

 

[FilipEmoFights]

What part of the world was this in? Since you mentioned the kid barely speaking English.

It was Portsmouth, Virginia

 

[Only Here for Attachments]

Ben Nguyen, the pride of South Dakota! Too bad that one card he headlined was over 6 hours away in Sioux Falls back when I lived in Rapid City

 

[agibmxmma]

Da Braddah Louis always been a solid one in and out the gym. He is living in Socal, coaching these days and in the US Army Reserves.

 

[Mr.Maelstrom]

Da Braddah Louis always been a solid one in and out the gym. He is living in Socal, coaching these days and in the US Army Reserves.

Shit thats what's up. Always liked Smolka, I still remember his fight w Paddy o hoolahan from 2015 or 16

 

[JPOMMA]

It was Portsmouth, Virginia

Haha crazy cause when I read the story I thought it was in the Philippines, Thailand or similar place

 

[FilipEmoFights]

Haha crazy cause when I read the story I thought it was in the Philippines, Thailand or similar place

No but I DID get to go train at the Tiger Muay Thai gym for a month, got to go live there and everything. Woke up in the fighters dorm with the Thai guys, ran with them in the morning, ate rice, sparred for 4 hours, took a nap, woke up for dinner, ran, ate dinner, nap, ran again, trained, then ran, then went back to sleep

My cousin who was a kickboxer tricked me into going with him and I was miserable for the first 5 days but then something clicked and it stopped hurting so bad and I started embracing how grueling it was (which really isn’t THAT much more grueling then an American high school wrestling room or even a CrossFit gym)
It’s just the breaking down of your body BEFORE the sparring that I didn’t like that much
Came back home yoked as fuck and with 30 times the CTE I already had from American training
Beautiful facility in a jungle like country, bugs EVERYWHERE biting the shit out of you and we ate SO much rice (I’m half Filipino so I was already good at that)
This was like 2013ish

 

[JPOMMA]

No but I DID get to go train at the Tiger Muay Thai gym for a month, got to go live there and everything. Woke up in the fighters dorm with the Thai guys, ran with them in the morning, ate rice, sparred for 4 hours, took a nap, woke up for dinner, ran, ate dinner, nap, ran again, trained, then ran, then went back to sleep

My cousin who was a kickboxer tricked me into going with him and I was miserable for the first 5 days but then something clicked and it stopped hurting so bad and I started embracing how grueling it was (which really isn’t THAT much more grueling then an American high school wrestling room or even a CrossFit gym)
It’s just the breaking down of your body BEFORE the sparring that I didn’t like that much
Came back home yoked as fuck and with 30 times the CTE I already had from American training
Beautiful facility in a jungle like country, bugs EVERYWHERE biting the shit out of you and we ate SO much rice (I’m half Filipino so I was already good at that)
This was like 2013ish

Cool story, thanks for sharing! Been to Thailand a bunch (love mango sticky rice!) among other places in SEA but never the Philippines. It’s on my list Hopefully I’ll bump into Kim Chiu