Kris Moutinho made a name for himself with the opportunity given against Sean O’Malley at UFC 264. Despite his best efforts and the very minor trash talk in the short build-up to the short notice fight, Moutinho walked away with a loss.
“It was funny, but I was right in his face talking to him right back,” Kris Moutinho told MMA Fighting of the mid-fight banter with O’Malley. “He can do whatever he wants. He has a way about him that he only does that when he’s in front of a camera. I’m the same person I am in front of the camera, outside the camera, I’m the same person. A hundred percent of the time. He’s not the same person.
“When he’s not in front of the camera, he’s as nice as can be, he doesn’t say a word. When him and his corner are in front of the camera they talk all they can. So we’re just different, we look at things different. If I don’t like you, you know I don’t like you, and I bring the same energy a hundred percent of the time.”
The 28-year old Milford, Massachusetts native in Kris Moutinho consistently walked forward over the course of the allotted three rounds. Only defending roughly 20 percent of strikes thrown by O’Malley, Moutinho absorbed enough damage for referee Herb Dean to stop the action with thirty seconds left in the third round.
“I feel like he was getting a little scared towards the end,” Moutinho said. “He was a little scared towards the end. If that was a five-round fight, he would have been a little more. I think I was pushing him, I think he was tired. I think I was going at a pace that eventually, he would have worn down of.”