Boston, MA — Newly crowned bantamweight champion Sean O’Malley admitted following UFC 292 that the feeling of winning the title was surreal.
“It definitely feels surreal. It feels like I’m playing a video game and I’ve got cheat codes. ‘Alright, I’m going to knock out Aljo in the second on Saturday.’ It’s crazy,” O’Malley (17-1, 1NC) told media outlets including Cageside Press following the event.
After a close first frame, O’Malley knocked out established champion Aljamain Sterling in the second round of the PPV card’s main event. Impressively, O’Malley was able to fend off Sterling’s wrestling through the opening five minutes.
“My main goal was to not let him take you down, and I knew if I could keep it on the feet I could knock him out,” O’Malley said on that front. “The longer the fight stayed on the feet, the better chance I had of knocking him out. I knew it would get him frustrated, him not being able to grab me. I thought he was way too confident that he was going to be able to just come in and grab me.”
“I don’t know if he’d ever sparred someone as good as I am or fought someone as good as I am. I truly believe I’m a level above most people in the striking department. And I just felt he was very confident because he had never experienced— it wasn’t his fault, he had just never experienced someone that fast in front of him.”
O’Malley also revealed that he was injured ahead of the fight, something he kept close to the chest. The ailment, while not enough to force him out of his first title opportunity, prevented him from doing any grappling training in the weeks prior to the bout.
“I haven’t grappled in six weeks. I had a muscle strain, and I literally haven’t grappled in six weeks. I couldn’t MMA spar,” stated O’Malley. “I was the main event in Boston, there was no shot I was pulling out, but we haven’t grappled in six weeks. Six weeks from the date, from today. I had a muscle strain right under my rib, and I couldn’t grapple.”
“Coming into this fight fighting Aljo, every time I did interviews and I was saying ‘it’s life or death, I cannot get taken down,’ it was because I didn’t know if this would hold up. And it’s f*cking sore right now, and I don’t know if it’s from a kick, or the little bit of grappling that we did.”
Those sort of mental demons, knowing that he was injured, was something O’Malley had to contend with ahead of the fight — and as he noted, he couldn’t just come out and say he was hurt.
Following his championship win, O’Malley suggested a rematch with Chito Vera, who also picked up a victory on Saturday. Vera represents the only blemish on O’Malley’s record, though “Suga” Sean claims the “Sugar State Athletic Commission” cleared the fight from his record.
“Yeah I thought you know, let’s shoot a promo. But we’ll see. Just the way he acts, he’s so annoying,” O’Malley said about Vera. “Just like, he’s not funny, he tries to be. He’s so ugly, he dresses like an idiot. It’s like God, do I really have to give this guy an opportunity? But I’m like, I’ll probably just go out there and whup his ass and make a lot of money, so I could.”
Aside from that, O’Malley, who dismissed the idea of rematching Sterling, suggested a boxing match instead. “I also wouldn’t mind knocking out Gervonta Davis, and I know people are going to be like ‘oh you want to be Conor [McGregor].’ I’m telling you, that fight is going to happen.”
Watch the full UFC 292 post-fight press conference with Sean O’Malley above.
