Las Vegas, NV — “Ouch. My hands hurt so bad from punching him in the face.” That was Sean O’Malley’s reaction after going most of three rounds with newcomer Kris Moutinho at UFC 264 on Saturday night.
The PPV card opener saw O’Malley land a massive number of strikes on Moutinho, who just plain refused to go down. In the end, ref Herb Dean actually stopped the fight while Moutinho was still on his feet fighting — saving the man from himself.
Up next, O’Malley is looking at Rob Font, who he called out in the cage post-fight. Backstage at the T-Mobile Arena, O’Malley reiterated the callout.
“Petr [Yan]’s obviously fighting Aljo [Aljamain Sterling]. Cody [Garbrandt]’s going down to 25. [Dominick] Cruz don’t wanna fight. I think Rob is a good callout. We’ll see if I get it. He’s ranked way higher.” O’Malley questioned whether the rankings matter, however, noting that Chito Vera fought Jose Aldo after beating O’Malley himself.
Having opening the UFC 264 PPV card, O’Malley was asked if perhaps headlining a show might be next. But if it’s a Fight Night, forget it.
“$20,000 extra dollars to fight for ten [more] minutes? I’m good with co-mains, opening up Pay-per-Views,” exclaimed O’Malley. “I think a couple more fights, and I’ll be headlining Pay-per-Views. The bantamweights right now can’t headline, I think they’re co-main eventing. I think I’m going to be a headlining bantamweight Pay-per-View star.”
As for Saturday’s affair, O’Malley spoke highly of his opponent. “Kris wasn’t happy with the stoppage, but he should be happy with— he took this fight on short notice, he came in and hurt my hands. It was a good fight.”
He’s also pulling for a Fight of the Night bonus for both of them. “I really, really, really hope, not just for me, it was Fight of the Night. I hope Kris gets 75K taking that fight on short notice. I hope he gets that too.”
Watch the full UFC 264 post-fight press scrum with Sean O’Malley above.
