When an athlete is bold and flamboyant, their critics will feast when they fall. “Suga” Sean O’Malley found this out firsthand early Sunday morning.
O’Malley was a stand-up guy following his loss to Merab Dvalishvili in the main event of Noche UFC on Saturday, Sept. 14 at The Sphere in Las Vegas.
The defeat cost O’Malley his UFC bantamweight championship, but he mustered up the strength to post an apology to his fans on social media.
O’Malley’s successful attempt to man up did not deter the criticism, and many didn’t hold back.
Devin Haney, a super lightweight boxing champion, took to X with a short and not-so-sweet post rubbing salt in O’Malley’s wound.
O’Malley clearly hadn’t powered off his mobile device for the night. He responded to Haney less than an hour later.
O’Malley has discussed entering crossover fights with Gervonta Davis, Devin Haney, and others. Those overtures have earned him some enemies on that side of the combat sports pond.
In MMA, former UFC flyweight and bantamweight champion Henry Cejudo dug even deeper with his insults and criticism of O’Malley.
There is a lot to unpack here.
Cejudo’s post has references to O’Malley’s alleged performance-enhancing and recreational drug use, hence the “cokeheads” callout. It also takes a shot at O’Malley’s fixation on surpassing Conor McGregor as the top combat sports athlete and his need to improve his takedown defense.
Dvalishvili took O’Malley down six times and controlled him for over 10 minutes in the Noche UFC main event. Cejudo might deserve another gold medal for the most thorough insult of the evening. Former UFC bantamweight champion and one of O’Malley’s former opponents, Petr Yan, seemed to enjoy seeing Suga fall.
He still believes O’Malley’s decision win over him in October 2022 in Abu Dhabi was a gift. It sounds like Yan is open to a rematch.
Despite the critics and enemies, O’Malley has built a strong following and solidified his spot as a needle-mover in the UFC. He’ll be back, and the UFC will likely match him with a striker in his next few fights to give him a chance to regain some momentum.
For now, O’Malley is on the right track, as he stated in his IG post shortly after the loss to Dvalishvili.
It’s time to work on that takedown defense. Here is a look at all of the Noche UFC results.
Noche UFC 306 Main Card Results
- Merab Dvalishvili def. Sean O’Malley via unanimous decision (48-47×2, 49-46)
- Valentina Shevchenko def. Alexa Grasso via unanimous decision (50-45×3)
- Diego Lopes defeats Brian Ortega via unanimous decision (30-26, 30-27, 30-27)
- Esteban Ribovics defeats Daniel Zellhuber via split decision (29-28, 28-29, 29-28)
- Ronaldo Rodriguez defeats Ode Osbourne via unanimous decision (29-28, 29-27, 29-27)
UFC 306 Preliminary Card Results
- Norma Dumont defeats Irene Aldana via unanimous decision (30-27 x 3)
- Ignacio Bahamondes defeats Manuel Torres via TKO at 4:02 of Round 1
- Ketlen Souza defeats Yazmin Jauregui via submission at 3:02 of Round 1 (Rear-naked choke)
- Joshua Van defeats Edgar Chairez via unanimous decision (29-28 x3)
UFC 306 Early Preliminary Card Results
- Raul Rosas Jr. defeats Aoriqileng via unanimous decision (29-28 x 3)
