Las Vegas, NV – UFC 276 did not go at all the way bantamweight Sean O’Malley planned when his fight against Pedro Munhoz ended in a no contest decision after an unintentional eye poke left Munhoz unable to continue.
“Initially when it happened I’m like, ‘Ok, didn’t feel like it was bad. I thought we were going to be fighting in 20 seconds.’ I didn’t think the fight was going to be stopped,” O’Malley told Cageside Press among other media on Saturday night.
Up until the point in the second round when the fight was stopped O’Malley felt like things were going his way.
“I was dominating that fight. I checked every one of his leg kicks. I could feel his shins cracking. Every time he would throw a kick I would check it and I could tell it hurt him. I didn’t get hit one time. I was dominating that fight, I was piecing him up, I was finding my range,” O’Malley said.
“It sucks.”
After the bout the scorecards were released and two judges actually had the first round in favor of Munhoz which O’Malley strongly disagreed with.
“Judges don’t know….have those judges kick me and I’ll check their kick and they’ll be like ‘Ohhh ok. That hurt.’ That’s a strike for me. That hurt Pedro. Every time he would kick me and I’d check it, that hurt him,” said O’Malley.
“For those judges to say that’s a score for him…..they’re completely stupid. Literally just stupid.”
Fans and even other fighters on social media began to post that they thought Munhoz was looking for a way out of the fight when the eye poke happened.
“100%. That’s what’s going on in my mind. I’ll have to rewatch it. I was piecing him up I didn’t get hit once. He came in there and said ‘I’m going to kick his legs and try to take him down’. He tried kicking my legs and it damaged him more. He couldn’t get me up against the fence couldn’t take me down,” O’Malley agreed.
“I was dominating that fight.”
With the event now over the though process moves to either looking to rematch with Munhoz to settle the fight or possibly move on to the next bout in line. O’Malley still hadn’t processed exactly what happened at UFC 276.
“It’s a weird feeling because I do feel like I won the fight, but it’s not like the emotions of winning a fight. I was winning the fight. I can’t believe the judges, I literally didn’t get hit once, were they watching? I didn’t get hit. How could you score that (for Munhoz)? That makes zero sense,” said O’Malley.
“In the cage he said ‘Oh we can run it back.’ Someone do a poll on twitter and see if he was looking for a way out. I really believe that was best case scenario for Pedro. I don’t know.”
Watch the full UFC 276 post-fight press scrum with Sean O’Malley above.
