Sean O’Malley has issued a response to the criticism he faced after his fight at UFC 280.
‘Sugar’ took on former bantamweight champion Petr Yan in a three-round bout at the pay-per-view event. The fight was a huge jump in competition for O’Malley, who gave a good account of himself and went toe-to-toe with ‘No Mercy’ for 15 minutes.
The fight was a razor-close affair that ended in a split-decision victory for ‘Sugar’. Two of the three judges scored the contest 29-28 in favor of the 28-year-old, while the other judge had Yan by the same score.
This outcome did not sit well with many in the MMA community, who claimed that Yan was the rightful victor of the fight and was robbed by the judges.
During the latest episode of The BrO’Malley Show, Sean O’Malley addressed the backlash and said people would not have been so critical of him if had he lost the fight:
“If I would have lost that fight, people would have put a lot more respect on my name. They’d be like, ‘Da*n! you lost but the motherf**ker’s good!’ Now, it’s like, ‘He what? He what? You gotta be sh***ing me!’… But the people that are mad that I won are people that said I was supposed to get whopped.”
Watch the full episode of the podcast below:
Joe Rogan gives his thoughts on Sean O’Malley vs. Petr Yan
During a recent episode of his podcast The Joe Rogan Experience, Joe Rogan reflected on the bantamweight showdown between Sean O’Malley and Petr Yan and its controversial outcome.
The American landed more significant strikes in the fight. However, Yan scored six takedowns on ‘Sugar’ while O’Malley didn’t land a single takedown of his own.
On the podcast, Rogan stated that according to him, ‘No Mercy’ won the fight. That said, he put out the question as to what was worth more – significant strikes during stand-up or takedowns without damage:
“It was a very close fight and he [O’Malley] definitely hurt Petr on multiple occasions. Caught him with that big knee, rocked him. The question is, how much is the takedown worth? How much is control worth?… I’m not denying that I thought Petr Yan won because I did think he won, but takedowns without damage versus stand-up with damage because Sugar landed more strikes standing… The question is, how valuable are those takedowns and how valuable is that top game and control?”
Watch Rogan discuss the fight below: