A bantamweight bout between Sean O'Malley and Louis Smolka had been added to July’s UFC 264 lineup.
MMA Junkie verified with a person close to the situation that verbal agreements between O’Malley (13-1 MMA, 5-1 UFC) and Smolka (17-7 MMA, 8-7 UFC) are in place following an initial report from Fight Game Media. The person requested anonymity because UFC has yet to make an official announcement.
UFC 264 takes place July 10 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. The main card airs on pay-per-view following prelims that are expected to air on ESPN and stream on ESPN+.
O’Malley, 26, successfully rebounded from his first career loss against Marlon Vera with a thrilling third-round knockout of Thomas Almeida at UFC 260 in March.
Smolka, meanwhile, is coming off a TKO of Jose Quinonez at UFC on ESPN 19 in December. He’s 3-2 since coming back to the promotion for a second stint a little more than two years ago.
The latest UFC 264 lineup now includes:
- Dustin Poirier vs. Conor McGregor
- Gilbert Burns vs. Stephen Thompson
- Jessica Eye vs. Jennifer Maia
- Ryan Hall vs. Ilia Topuria
- Omari Akhmedov vs. Brad Tavares
- Jerome Rivera vs. Zhalgas Zhumagulov
- Greg Hardy vs. Tai Tuivasa
- Dricus Du Plessis vs. Trevin Giles
- Sean O’Malley vs. Louis Smolka
