After his promising mixed martial arts career ended with his first professional loss in August 2020, Sean O’Malley was in no mood to take defeat humbly.
A few days after Marlon Vera’s first-round TKO win at UFC 252, O’Malley said on The Timbo and Sugar Show podcast, “It’s disappointing to lose to someone who I don’t think is that good.” told listeners. “I look at him and think, ‘He’s not that good.’ And I lost to him.
“Let’s look at his career in five years, and let’s look at my career as well,” he continued. “I’m going to be King’s world champion, and he’s going to be King’s journeyman.”
O’Malley was half right in less time.
Three years and three days later, he captured the UFC bantamweight title from Aljamain Sterling, ending his historic reign.
This Saturday, O’Malley (17-1, 13 KOs) will make his first title defense in the pay-per-view headliner of UFC 299, against none other than Vera (23-8, 1, 18 KOs). )is. End) Who will stand in front of him in the octagon?
If Berra is a journeyman, he’s a journeyman with a very impressive resume since getting O’Malley’s zero.
“He knocked out Frankie Edgar, he knocked out Dominick Cruz, he beat Rob Font, he lost a close fight to Jose Aldo,” O’Malley said in a recent video call with The Post, during which he gushed about some of Vera’s most impressive feats. A throwback to the reigning champion’s old potshots. “He’s obviously skilled, very durable, experienced and has a hungry spirit. I mean, he’s a very dangerous opponent.”
As skilled as Vera is and, like many of the fighters on Shark Tank in the 135-pound weight class, as qualified as a title challenger, his status here is due to his strong performance. The decision came less than a year after he suffered a clear loss to Cory Sandhagen. Vera won again in late 2023.
While Sandhagen may seem like the more likely challenger in that context, and Sterling or teammate Merab Dvalishvili would still make more sense, O’Malley believes that this rematch is the best option for him as UFC champion. He says there is an important reason why it will be his first match.
“It was up to me,” O’Malley said. I said this rematch should happen at the right time. There’s no better time than March 9th. ”
In their first match, O’Malley was able to get through the early action with some brutal leg kicks against Vera, who tends to have less volume.
However, O’Malley injured his ankle midway through the opening frame, and while O’Malley and his team claim it was the result of something that happened before the game, many observers were quick to point out that Berra’s before O’Malley showed any signs of being in danger, which he attributed to damage sustained by a calf kick.
What isn’t up for debate is the damage Vera did to end the fight, as he landed a hard elbow once the fight went on the floor, prompting a stoppage by the referee.
No doubt the lower leg injury played a role in the referee’s decision to stop the match, with O’Malley reaching for it in obvious pain at the end of the match.
O’Malley said the passage of time had not changed his perspective on the events of the first game, and he was reluctant to revisit it for the Post, turning his attention to his second crack at “Tito” in Miami. He said he preferred to direct.
“It’s the same as we saw before. He got lucky. It happened,” O’Malley said before taking a break to move the story forward. “We’re going to get a rewrite at UFC 299. There’s not much to do, uh, we’re going to beat him right away.”
