Former UFC bantamweight champion Sean O’Malley seems well aware of the losses he will incur now that he is no longer the defending champ. Suga Sean lost his title to Merab Dvalishvili at UFC 306 earlier this year. And that’s pretty much all he’s been talking about since the fight.
The worst part in all of this is that he will have to wait a few months before he can even think of returning to the octagon. O’Malley is still recovering from hip surgery. The wait will seem even longer for the 29-year-old because the loss of his title will now cost the UFC star a huge chunk of his earnings.
‘Suga’ held the belt for a year and defended his title once. In that time, his earnings from the UFC skyrocketed as he headlined events, which ensured that a portion of the PPVs went into his bank account. Now that he doesn’t have that privilege anymore, the account could run a bit dry by the standards he had gotten accustomed to
On the Join The Lobby podcast on YouTube, O’Malley addressed the impending pay cut,
“Now that I’m not champ, I won’t make nearly as much money. Coz when you start making real money is when you’re the champ.”
And of course, as a loyal employee of the UFC, he blamed it on the illegal streaming problem that the company faces.
O’Malley thinks the organization is not selling as many PPVs as they used to simply because of how easy it is for people to access the illegal streams. Now, that is not entirely true.
Despite O’Malley’s claim to stardom, he is yet to break the mainstream barrier that former UFC champions like Conor McGregor, Ronda Rousey, Daniel Cormier, and Brock Lesnar (thanks to his time with the WWE) had done.
Credits: Imago
Without a proper mainstream star in his roster, it is not surprising that his PPV numbers would struggle.
As far as getting paid is concerned, O’Malley could also look into the claims of unfair fight pay in the UFC, taking notes about the percentage of profits the fighters get from the promotion compared to the athletes in other sports.
But that’s unlikely to happen!
In any case, O’Malley has been a bit out of touch with things, especially since losing his title to Dvalishvili, which, to this day, he claims he didn’t.
However, UFC featherweight champion, Ilia Topuria has recently responded to O’Malley claiming he won the fight against ‘The Machine’.
Topuria asks O’Malley to stop smoking and shut up
Ever since losing his belt to Merab Dvalishvili, Sean O’Malley has been very adamant that he won the fight on the scorecards, something that is verifiably untrue. ‘Suga’ got rag-dolled by Dvalishvili, hardly getting any strikes off of him for five straight rounds. It was utter domination by the Georgian, and a poor performance by the Montana native.
In a recent interview with Ariel Helwani for his show on YouTube, the UFC journalist asked Topuria about O’Malley’s comments on the fight. Topuria, who has been pretty active in MMA media recently, had some advice for Suga. Champ to former champ, he said:
“I don’t know that guy smokes so much, that he lost his mind. I recommend him to watch the fight again and again….So bro, shut the f*ck up.”
Topuria does not understand how O’Malley could think that he had won after his performance. The former champ almost looked scared to throw his signature punches and combos inside the octagon.
