Sean O'Malley cites Paddy Pimblett "robbery" to justify win over Petr Yan
When Sean O'Malley defeated Petr Yan via split decision at UFC 280, many members of the MMA community felt like the Russian was 'robbed' of a victory. However, Paddy Pimblett's victory over Jared Gordon at UFC 282 seemingly received an even larger backlash.
It seems that most believe O'Malley's fight with Yan was much closer than Pimblett's clash with Gordon, which many thought 'Flash' should have won.
In an interview with Michael Bisping, Sean O'Malley gave his thoughts on the outcome of Paddy Pimblett vs. Jared Gordon. O'Malley alluded to people thinking that his win against Yan was a 'robbery', and then pointed to the bout between 'The Baddy' and 'Flash' as a real example of one:
"You know, rewatching it [O'Malley vs. Yan], scoring it off damage - supposedly that's the number one criteria [for judging], whatever, I'm not a judge - you know, I think the judges got it right. I know everybody thought it was a robbery, but no one knew what a robbery was until we saw Paddy Pimblett's fight."
That last comment made Michael Bisping laugh before 'The Count' asked 'Sugar' what he thought about the action in the UFC 282 co-main event. O'Malley replied:
"Usually I don't care too much, to really sit there and watch the full fight. [But] I was pretty interested in that fight and I thought he [Pimblett] lost and I even leaned over to my buddy and said, 'I bet the judges give it to him.' I don't know, it was really weird. I thought he ate a lot big shots. I thought he lost that fight, but I don't know."
Catch the full interview below:
UFC 280: Petr Yan vs. Sean O'Malley - Fight stats
After taking a look at the official stats of the fight between Petr Yan and Sean O'Malley, it perhaps isn't surprising that the MMA community thought that Yan should have won the razor-thin bout. However, it's worth noting that fights aren't directly scored by statistics.
Although Sean O'Malley attempted more strikes than Petr Yan, the Russian fighter landed more than 'Sugar'. O'Malley attempted 171 total strikes, of which he landed 91. In comparison, Yan threw lesser strikes at O'Malley at 139, but landed more strikes with 97 strikes.
In terms of significant strikes, Petr Yan had a higher strike rate at 60%, landing 58 out of 96. O'Malley, meanwhile, had a significant strike rate of 51%, landing 84 out of 163 significant strikes.
Petr Yan had a takedown success rate of 46% in the fight, landing six out of 13 attempted takedowns with a control time of 5:44 minutes. Sean O'Malley had one unsuccessful takedown attempt, with just seconds of control time.
In the end, the judges gave O'Malley the win, securing him the No.1 spot in the bantamweight rankings. Petr Yan was reportedly so upset with the decision that he's considering leaving the UFC.