Sean O’Malley is looking to end his UFC 264 fight in highlight-reel fashion. O’Malley was supposed to face Louis Smolka but the Hawaiian was forced out of the fight due to a staph infection. Several ranked bantamweights called him out but he will face short-notice replacement Kris Moutinho.
Ahead of the bout, many expect O’Malley to win the fight early. However, for the fan-favorite, he isn’t worried about winning the fight. Instead, he says he wants to KO Moutinho with something never before seen.
“I’m feeling good, man, best shape of my life. Really, what I’m dealing with right now is to try and figure out how I want to knock this kid out,” Sean O’Malley said on his YouTube channel. “It needs to be something crazy. It can’t just be an easy right hand from Suga land, it’s gotta be something insane. It needs to be never before done. Tim and I are going to brainstorm fight week, something crazy.”
There is no question many expect O’Malley to get an early KO win. He’s a massive -900 favorite and is the biggest favorite on the card. He also has shown off his ability to get flashy KOs like his walk-off KO over Eddie Wineland last summer.
Sean O’Malley enters the scrap coming off a dominant third-round TKO over Thomas Almeida. The victory got him back into the win column after he suffered a first-round TKO loss to Marlon Vera at UFC 252 in a fight he hurt his ankle in. Since joining the UFC in 2017, O’Malley is 5-1.
Kris Moutinho, meanwhile, is currently on a two-fight winning streak but is just 2-2 in his last four. The 28-year-old is coming off a submission win over Andrew Salas in May in CFFC. Prior to that, he scored a TKO win over Ashiek Ajim to get back into the win column after he lost back-to-back fights to Johnny Campbell and Tony Gravely by TKO. If he somehow pulls off the upset over O’Malley it would propel him into another big fight.