The feud between UFC bantamweight champion Sean O’Malley and UFC flyweight king Alexandre Pantoja continues, six years after it first began.
Ahead of his upcoming title defense against Steve Erceg in the main event of UFC 301, flyweight champion Alexandre Pantoja has once again called out ‘Suga’ for his part in a now-infamous training session in which both fighters reportedly finished each other.
Alexandre Pantoja claims he ‘smashed’ Sean O’Malley in sparring
Speaking to Scott Fontana via the New York Post Sports YouTube channel, UFC flyweight champion Alexandre Pantoja revealed that “I have some history” with the current king of the weight division above him, Sean O’Malley.
Pantoja said that their shared history originates from when O’Malley was brought in as a sparring partner ahead of the Brazilian’s first fight in the UFC, after which ‘Suga’ allegedly refused to share footage of the training session:
“He said some bad things about that [sparring] but that’s crazy because he recorded the sparring and at the end of training I said, ‘Hey send to me the video and then I can see our training’ and he never passed the training to me.”
“I asked [his friend] ‘Can you talk with your friend for send the video’, and he said to me ‘Hey, he’s not gonna send to you bro, you smashed him,’” claimed the 125lb champion.
Pantoja admitted the entire situation was “weird” because the two seemingly hit it off at first, stating that O’Malley was “a nice guy, very talented, humble kid, [and] very shy” before the fan-favorite American later claimed that the sparring session had gone his way:
“I never thought about going up to bantamweight because it doesn’t make sense for me, I have huge opponents to fight at flyweight, but the only thing I can imagine if [I was] to go to bantamweight with O’Malley [would be] because he says something bad.”
To his credit, Pantoja noted that such a shared experience was a pleasant rarity in the sport, given that both he and O’Malley had risen through the ranks to claim undisputed glory:
“Six years ago, I make my debut in the UFC and he’s not in the UFC and right now, I’m a flyweight champion and he’s bantamweight champion – that’s good history you know, but I have a huge line to fight at flyweight.”
Sean O’Malley responds to Pantoja’s claims with simple reply
Sean O’Malley himself replied to a social media post from Championship Rounds concerning Pantoja’s recent comments, simply stating: “Twas a first round TKO.”
Yet this isn’t the first time that the two had openly discussed the sparring session or knockout, as back in August 2023, O’Malley posted online: “It’s def not cool to call out ppl below you in weight so I def won’t even mention that I’d knock Alex Pantoja out…. Again.”
In a subsequent episode of The BrO’Malley podcast, O’Malley went further into detail on both the sparring incident and Pantoja’s comments, claiming:
“Does he want me to post it? I finished him in the first round. I can post that, I wasn’t gonna bring it up, if that’s what he wants. That’s funny – I mean, does he forget how it played out?”
“I will say in the third round he choked me,” admitted O’Malley, before adding how at the time, “I was like 1-0 or 2-0 as a pro, he was coming off ‘The Ultimate Fighter’ making his UFC debut… I was f****** smoking joints the night before.”
“So I’m having to sparring this dude two rounds in a row. Not in camp, not in shape. Finish him in the first round. They’re f***** pissed. Spar him again in the second round. I’m 100% gassed out from already whooping his a**.”
“So, he does choke me in the third round [but] like this is a long time ago,” said O’Malley, who is expected to return to the octagon later this year to defend his 135lb title against Merab Dvalishvili.
Alexandre Pantoja takes on Steve Erceg in the main event of UFC 301 this weekend and should the Brazilian continue to get his hand raised, the stage could have already been set for a champ-champ showdown later down the line.