Sean O’Malley once had Mike Tyson defending him following some criticism from the fans after O’Malley’s first-ever UFC loss.
This coming Saturday at UFC 316, Sean O’Malley meets Merab Dvalishvili in the main event as he looks to reclaim his bantamweight title after a disappointing loss to ‘The Machine’ last September.
Following their first fight, O’Malley claimed that he went into the fight with a torn labrum, which he used as a reason for his tepid performance.
Ahead of their rematch in Newark, though, O’Malley’s head coach Tim Welch blamed the $2.3 billion Sphere lighting for ‘Suga’s’ out of character performance, claiming that the venue was too unnatural.
O’Malley’s loss to Merab was only his second professional MMA loss, with his first having come four years prior against Marlon ‘Chito’ Vera.
Mike Tyson defended Sean O’Malley following loss to Vera
The UFC star’s first-ever loss against Vera at UFC 252 came in unconventional fashion, after a foot injury to O’Malley changed the tide of the fight.
O’Malley suffered an agonizing foot injury early on in his UFC career and somehow fought through the injury, resulting in him being interviewed on the floor by Joe Rogan while he lay in agony.
Against Vera, though, he wasn’t able to fight through the bizarre injury as he stumbled to the ground and subsequently had his head elbowed through the canvas by Vera who scored the stoppage win.
For several years after his first-ever loss, ‘Suga’ claimed that he was still undefeated and even when Bruce Buffer would announce his record in following fights, he would hold a 0 up to the camera.
Following his loss to Vera, O’Malley received a bit of criticism from the UFC fanbase as he was widely regarded as a future star in the sport and fans believed that his loss exposed that.
Despite that, he was surprisingly offered some defense by boxing legend Mike Tyson, who claimed he didn’t lose.
“I like him, I want him to do well,” Tyson said of O’Malley during an episode of Hotboxin’.
“I saw him lose a fight where he didn’t really lose. He broke his leg, he would’ve kicked this guy’s f—— a–. O’Malley has a lot of potential, I’m one of his fans,” Tyson defended O’Malley.
Sean O’Malley offers retirement timeline ahead of UFC 316
Ahead of his rematch clash against the Georgian champion, O’Malley has offered a retirement timeline, stating that he would like to carry on fighting until he is 37-38.
Having not accumulated much damage throughout his career, the 30-year-old’s eagerness to continue ‘until the wheels fall off’ could be achieved.