The aim of this study was to establish a new regularity criterion for local-in-time smooth solutions for the 3D nematic liquid crystal flows in terms of the horizontal gradient of two horizontal velocity components in the framework of the homogeneous Besov Ḃ−1∞,∞ space and one directional derivative of molecular orientations in the framework of the homogeneous Morrey–Campanato Ṁ2,3r space. More precisely, we show that the smooth solution (u,d) can be extended beyond T, provided that
∫T0(∥∇h̃u(⋅,t)∥2˙B−1∞,∞+∥∂3d(⋅,t)∥2Ṁ2,3r)dt<∞.