Fighting on short notice

Taking a fight on 10 days notice might be a daunting challenge for most mixed martial arts competitors.

For Casey Kenney, it’s nothing new.

Kenney, a 2009 Jay County High School graduate who took his first Ultimate Fighting Championship bout on just five days notice, will take on Louis Smolka on Saturday as part of a UFC Fight Night at UFC Apex in Las Vegas.

The card, highlighted by a welterweight title fight between Tyron Woodley and Gilbert Burns, will be on ESPN. The preliminary card — Kenney and Smolka are second — begins at 6 p.m., with the main card set to start at 9 p.m.

The short timeline between contract and fight night — he agreed to the bout May 20 — is a familiar scenario. His first foray into UFC came on just five days notice and just eight days after he defeated Vince Cachero for the Legacy Fighting Alliance bantamweight title.

“I don’t know if I would have been so confident taking this fight. After doing something like that, I have all the confidence in the world that I can fight on a couple days notice let alone giving me 10 days,” said Kenney in a phone interview Thursday from Las Vegas. “Experience is like that in this sport. … Sometimes you don’t know what you’re capable of until you actually go through it.”

The fight Saturday is part of UFC’s fourth card since a nearly two-month layoff caused by the coronavirus pandemic. The promotion held a UFC Fight Night event March 14 and then was off before coming back May 9 with the UFC 249 card that featured Tony Ferguson vs. Justin Gaethje in Jacksonville, Florida.

Having last competed in February, Kenney said he was ready for another opportunity.

“I was sitting there watching like, ‘Man, the playground’s open. Let me play,’” he said.

The February fight didn’t go Kenney’s way as Merab “The Machine” Dvalishvili handed him a loss by unanimous decision — 30-27, 30-25, 29-28 — in a fight that was decided on the mat. Dvalishvili recorded 12 takedowns, a UFC bantamweight division record, as he handed Kenney his first UFC defeat after a couple of victories.

As he looks to get back on track, Kenney said Smolka provides a different kind of challenge.

Smolka’s grappling, Kenney said, is more similar to his own, featuring some judo and more scrambling. He compared the 28-year-old from Waipahu, Hawaii, to Cachero in terms of style — someone who prefers to stand in and go toe-to-toe.

“It’s definitely going to be a different style than the last one,” Kenney said. “He’s definitely more in-your-face, trying to pepper shot you, put you away with multiple shots … Also a very skilled grappler, but a different style than Merab.

“Super well-rounded. Super experienced.”

Smolka (16-6) is 2-1 in his current stint with UFC and is coming off of a technical knockout win over Ryan McDonald in September. He got off to a strong start in his previous UFC run from 2014 through 2017, winning five of his first six fights before dropping four straight.

Kenney (13-2-1) and Smolka share one common opponent — Ray Borg — who Kenney defeated by unanimous decision in his UFC debut last year and who Smolka lost to by unanimous decision in 2016. One of Smolka’s other UFC losses came by split decision against Chris Cariaso, who is now Kenney’s coach.

After his loss to Dvalishvili, said he felt he had gotten too far away from his judo and wrestling roots. The skills were still there, he just had not used them in that fight.

This time, he says his head is exactly where it needs to be.

He added that he’s spent the last few months getting bigger and stronger, something the he thinks would have been a factor in the last fight and will make a difference on Saturday night. And he’s looking forward to the opportunity to get his UFC career back on a winning track.

“The taste of losing in my mouth is still there and I kind of want to erase that on Saturday,” said Kenney, adding he’s hoping to be able to get back in the cage again by the end of the summer. “It’s definitely not the first time I’ve lost something, and I know how to respond to it. But there’s not a better feeling than going back out there and showing everyone what you’re really made of.”