Sean O’Malley and Andre Soukhamthath lived up to the hype at UFC 222, earning themselves Fight of the Night.
It was a fight that on paper looked like it could be Fight of the Night, and it lived up to the hype. Sean O’Malley and Andre Soukhamthath battled it out for three rounds Saturday in Las Vegas on the PPV portion of UFC 222. For the first two frames, O’Malley seemed to have Soukhamthath’s number, save a few flashes here and there. Then, in the third, O’Malley injured a leg off a head kick that Soukhamthath blocked. That allowed Soukhamthath to take the man behind the “Sugar Show” down nearly at will. The problem was, O’Malley still had some fight left in him, despite being in obvious pain. Plus, O’Malley was up on the scorecards.
O’Malley picked up the win, though he was unable to stand when the scores were read. Nate Diaz had a thing or two to say about that:
How u win if u can't walk out the cage ? Smh
— Nathan Diaz (@NateDiaz209) March 4, 2018
That having been said, the bout earned Soukhamthath and O’Malley an extra $50,000 each.
For the night’s Performance of the Night awards, Brian Ortega and Alex Hernandez won big. Ortega, of course, came as no surprise. His finish of Frankie Edgar, the former UFC lightweight champion, was both historic and shocking. Alex Hernandez, meanwhile, surprised many with his finish of Beneil Dariush.
Following the bout, UFC President Dana White confirmed that the total gate was $1.4 million, with 12,041 in attendance at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
