Former fighter explains why he feels Sean O'Malley has the "Conor McGregor curse" following title loss at UFC 306: "He was getting styled on"
Sean O'Malley was unsuccessful in his second title defense as he suffered a unanimous decision loss to Merab Dvalishvili in the main event of UFC 306, which marked the promotion's first event at the Las Vegas Sphere. The No. 1-ranked bantamweight has often found himself compared to Conor McGregor, thanks in large to his own doing after claiming he hopes to become double champ before pursuing a crossover boxing bout.
Former UFC welterweight Alan Jouban recently shared a less positive comparison of the two. Speaking to Damon Martin, the retired mixed martial artist stated:
"There's been the comparisons of Sean O'Malley and Conor McGregor for a long time. They have a lot of similarities in terms of star power and being able to knock you out. If it's the power, if it's the timing, precision of the strike, whatever it is, they can finish fights in an instance and they have star power, but O'Malley also has the Conor McGregor curse where when he is not the hammer and he becomes the nail, and if that opponent starts to style on them, when they're not styling and they're getting styled on, it defeats them."
Jouban continued:
"It defeats them. We haven't seen that. Sean O'Malley is used to doing fadeaway threes after the knockout. Sean O'Malley is in the middle of a fight dribbling the basketball, right? The best sniper, the precision. When he's getting taken down and Merab's kissing him on the head and he's doing the lookaways for the kicks, he was getting styled on and the mentality, the mental warfare, the subtleties there for a guy that's a star, when somebody steals your shine, it kills those type of guys."
Check out Alan Jouban's full comments below:
Jouban added that O'Malley has the McGregor curse where if his shine is taken away, he withers on the spot. He also claimed that Dvalishvili was able to fight the perfect fight both physically and mentally, taking 'Suga's confidence away.
Sean O'Malley apologizes for subpar UFC 306 performance
Sean O'Malley entered UFC 306 with plenty of hype surrounding him, claiming he would knock out Merab Dvalishvili. 'Suga' was unable to live up to his words, putting forth a subpar performance and losing the bantamweight title via unanimous decision.
O'Malley took to X following the bout to apologize for his lackluster showing, tweeting:
"Over promised under delivered. Sorry. Love you guys."
Check out the apology tweet below:
O'Malley will likely head back to the drawing board as his performance was not strong enough and his reign was not long enough to warrant an immediate rematch. The No.1-ranked has hinted that he will take some time off before making his return to the octagon.