PFL 2’s Sean O’Connell was in the broadcast booth to start the night Thursday, and finished it in the cage with his hand raised — an opportunity he says the UFC wouldn’t even discuss with him.
A victorious Sean O’Connell was noticed for two things at PFL 2 on Thursday in Chicago. First, there was his comeback win against Ronny Markes. Markes had O’Connell in some bad spots throughout the first round of the fight. On the ground, and on the feet, Markes seemed to be fully in control.
Then came round two. Markes opened up with a flying knee. Only for O’Connell to crack him with a punch right on the jaw moments later. Markes went down, covered up, and O’Connell went to work with the ground and pound, looking for the finish.
It did not come easy. Markes held on for what felt like forever before the ref finally called off the fight. Incredibly, just an hour or so before, O’Connell had been cage side, in suit and tie, working the broadcast booth. It’s an opportunity the UFC never afforded him, but one he jumped at in the PFL. O’Connell addressed juggling duties, as well as the bout, following PFL 2 on Thursday at the Chicago Theater.
“The result is what matters, and the result is what I wanted,” he said of the outcome of Thursday night’s fight. “I feel like I’m just getting started again.”
As to what was going through his head when Markes launched that flying knee, it was mainly “‘don’t let him hit you with anything,’ because he’s a big boy,” O’Connell explained. “I came into this through camp thinking ‘don’t let him take you down, if he takes you down, get back up, don’t let him get you into an advantageous position.’ I let him do all of those things, and I still found a way to get out of it, which was encouraging.” After being hit with some big shots on the feet and having a near miss with “one that probably would have been will bad for me,” O’Connell told himself to “dial it in, move your head, find a way to get this done.”
“I’m one of those guys that, if I land something on you, I feel like I have a great chance of finishing a fight,” the fighter summed up. “I just got to get better at landing those things.”
As for any talk of a slow stoppage, “Keith [Peterson]’s a great ref. He tends to err, especially in something like this — he knows what’s on the line for us — he tends to err on the side of letting longstanding professionals work their way through problems,” O’Connell said. “I don’t think he let Ronny take damage he isn’t going to recover from.”
The Steven Siler fight at PFL 1 just a week ago is a prime example. “A lot of people, myself included, cage side, were like ‘wow, that could have been stopped,'” said O’Connell. Instead, “Siler found a way to work through it and got a win, that’s great news for him and sets him up at the top of the standings moving through this regular season.”
For his part, O’Connell would rather take a few extra shots and be allowed to work through things, given what’s on the line. “I hope that’s how Ronny and his corner feel as well, because Keith is a good ref,” he added.
As for his broadcasting opportunity? It’s something the UFC wouldn’t even discuss. “I thought that, with my multi-faceted interests and professional abilities that, being an exciting fighter for the UFC, that would open other avenues, and I begged them for opportunities to broadcast,” he said Thursday. “And I never got so much as a phone call about it.” On the flip side, “it took one conversation with the PFL to say ‘give me a chance, just take a risk one someone who knows what they’re doing, I promise you I will be good at this.’ And they gave me a shot, at the opening show in New York City, at Madison Square Garden.”
There, he made his broadcast debut alongside legends Randy Couture, Bas Rutten, and Yves Edwards. Yet O’Connell doesn’t think anyone should be surprised that a fighter might have other talents.
“I don’t know if anyone’s done it before, but I’m very sick about fighters being treated like they’re only good at one thing, or they only care about one thing, or this is all that we can do in our lives,” he said. “This sport is about sacrifice and being multi-faceted, you’re supposed to be good at everything. Boxing, kickboxing, jiu-jitsu, wrestling, judo, all of it, and we’re going to act surprised that someone is decent at radio, or broadcasting, and they can fight?”
“Every fighter in the business is good at something. Firefighting, gardening, Thiago Tavares is a doctor in training right now. Everyone is doing something else. People shouldn’t be so surprised by it,” O’Connell finished.
Watch the full PFL 2 post-fight press scrum with Sean O’Connell above!
