At UFC 280 in October 2022, Sean O’Malley defeated Petr Yan in a dominating performance, which solidified his status as a legitimate title challenger. O’Malley’s potential to win a championship has, however, not always been viewed in the same light by everyone; in fact, up until a year ago, many people believed that he was just another UFC hype train.Sean O’Malley’s loss to Marlon Vera at UFC 252 is the only one on his record, yet ‘Sugar’ has continued to claim he is still undefeated. Vera kicked O’Malley in the calf, cutting off the circulation to his peroneal nerve, which resulted in O’Malley’s loss. The American eventually suffered a technical knockout defeat after collapsing to the ground due to the loss of sensation in his foot.O’Malley was a guest on the FLAGRANT podcast, which is hosted by Andrew Schulz, not too long ago. ‘Sugar’ restated the reasons why his defeat at the hands of Marlon Vera was due to an accident and stated:
“Why hasn’t that motherfucking jackass done that again? [Marlon Vera] didn’t he kick Jose Aldo? Why did he give Jose Aldo the opportunity to defeat him? Why didn’t he punch Aldo where it hurts most (the nerve)? Why hasn’t he ever performed the kick once more? That is exactly what I am arguing. How many thousands of kicks have been delivered in the UFC, and how many times have they kicked that nerve? That nerve is only stepped on extremely, extremely infrequently… this whole thing was just a fluke.”Following the victory of Aljamain Sterling over Henry Cejudo at UFC 288, Sean O’Malley is likely to defend his bantamweight title against Sterling in their next bout. ‘Sugar’ made an appearance in the octagon following Sterling’s victory, when things heated after Merab Dvalishvili donned O’Malley’s jacket.
Sean O’Malley on what he thought during his face-off with Aljamain Sterling
Last weekend’s UFC 288 event was headlined by a bantamweight title fight between Aljamain Sterling and Henry Cejudo. Sean O’Malley was present at the event and saw the fight. Sterling prevailed in the fight by way of a split decision, and it now appears that he will take on ‘Sugar’ next.
When O’Malley walked into the octagon after the bout, things were on the verge of getting out of control. During the post-event news conference, UFC president Dana White even admitted that the fight between Sean O’Malley and Brock Sterling was a “bad idea.” Sterling and O’Malley were supposed to face off against each other.
MMA journalist The Schmo conducted an interview with Sean O’Malley after UFC 288, during which he asked O’Malley to discuss the thoughts that went through his head while he was competing against Sterling. ‘Sugar’ said:”I thought, ‘This dude’s not as large as he looks on TV.’ I’ve seen him in person at the UFC Performance Institute while he was still wearing his clothing, and there’s no denying that the dude is shredded. But he’s not quite as huge as he appears to be.”