Outside Source
Sean O’Malley felt a need to sell his first fight against Merab Dvalishvili. | Getty/UFC
Sean O’Malley admits that he tried to emulate Conor McGregor too much for his own good.
O’Malley has been compared to McGregor during his rise to prominence in the Ultimate Fighting Championship. With McGregor’s inactivity since 2021, “Suga” was even touted as the next biggest star in the sport. O’Malley never shied away from the comparisons but would refute allegations of trying to copy “Notorious.” However, O’Malley recently admitted that he tried to become like McGregor too much for even his own liking.
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O’Malley revealed that he felt the pressure to build up his title defense against Merab Dvalishvili at UFC 306 at the Las Vegas Sphere last year. “Suga” feels he forced a fake rivalry with Dvalishvili, which he regrets in hindsight.
O’Malley: Second Title Defense Didn’t Feel ‘Big’
“I feel like I got lost almost in a sense where I wanted to be like Conor too much instead of being like myself,” O’Malley said on the “Between Rounds” podcast. “I’d say the first Merab fight. It was my second title defense and I was like, ‘I want this to be big.’ I didn’t feel like it was big, I didn’t feel like Merab was a big name. I had to force it. It was at the Sphere, I felt like I had to like create something. And I didn’t like how that made me feel… I feel like I made that one too personal and I didn’t like that.”
O’Malley’s stardom peaked with his knockout title win over Aljamain Sterling in 2023. However, O’Malley defended the bantamweight title only once against Marlon Vera before losing it to Dvalishvili. His drawing power has likely declined since suffering a submission loss against Dvalishvili in a failed bid to regain the title at UFC 316 this past June.
This article first appeared at Recent News on Sherdog.com
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