Sean O’Malley was once regarded as the UFC’s next big star but unfortunately, his stardom has taken a big hit over the last year.
Last September, the UFC put on potentially their biggest show ever when they landed in the Sphere, headlined by a bantamweight title fight between Sean O’Malley and Merab Dvalishvili.
In what seemed like a relatively shock result at the time, ‘The Machine’ Dvalishvili utterly dominated O’Malley to become the new 135lb champion.
Despite not rebounding with a win against another contender, ‘Suga’ was granted an immediate rematch against the Georgian this past June at UFC 316 and was once again dominated by Dvalishvili, suffering a third round submission loss.
O’Malley makes shock retirement statement following back-to-back losses
Ahead of his rematch against Merab, O’Malley made several lifestyle changes, with one being giving up social media, which for a fighter like ‘Suga’ who relies a lot on his popularity among fans, it was a big thing.
However, it didn’t make any difference to his performance which likely knocked his motivation a lot and he reverted back to his old ways shortly after.
After dwelling on his first ever back-to-back losses in the UFC, O’Malley surprised fans when he made a bold claim that he could beat Dvalishvili if they eventually had a trilogy fight, despite having lost to him twice.
Despite that, ‘Suga’ has now made a shock retirement admission, stating that he may never fight again following the losses he has suffered.
“If I had to guess, it would be November or December this year (that I return), ideally I’d fight one more time this year but it’s possible I don’t fight again this year, it’s actually possible that I never fight again, you just never know,” O’Malley said on a recent episode of his podcast.
At this point, it seems extremely unlikely that the 30-year-old will retire anytime soon, despite the fact that he has likely earned a lot of money throughout his career.
If O’Malley returns, who will he fight?
O’Malley would’ve been one of the promotion’s biggest PPV draws when he was the champion, however, that will no longer matter either with the UFC announcing a huge new $7.7 billion broadcast deal on Monday, removing PPV’s.
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‘Suga’ was relatively fast-tracked to his title shot, meaning he didn’t really face many contenders during his come-up, which leaves him with several potential matchups still.
At UFC 320, Merab will defend his title against Cory Sandhagen, and if the ‘Sandman’ is unsuccessful in his title challenge, a fight against O’Malley could make sense for him at the beginning of next year.