Sean O’Malley claims he won't follow Conor McGregor's path to stardom
UFC's hot-prospect Sean O’Malley is just a few wins away from a title fight with bantamweight champion Petr Yan, and he’s looking to avoid the mistakes made by former UFC lightweight champion Conor McGregor.
Sean O’Malley is one of the most promising prospects in the 135 lbs division at the moment and he’s already in the contention for fights against the top contenders in his division, including former champions Henry Cejudo and Cody Garbrandt, as well as reigning champion Yan.
Sean O'Malley learned a lesson from Conor McGregor
Speaking to MMA Fighting, Sean O'Malley credited his success at getting the attention of the top contenders to his trash talking as much as his skill.
“I’m easily the most talked about guy in the division. I’m talking a lot of smack about Petr, Cody, Henry, all these dudes, and they’re all replying. I’m clearly in Petr’s head, or Pete-R, whatever you want to call him. He’s thinking about me. I think he’s dreaming about me, waking up and asking someone to help him tweet something.”
Despite the trash talk, Sean O’Malley learnt a very important lesson from Conor McGregor's fight against Khabib Nurmagomedov at UFC 229 and says his fights will never be personal. Sean O’Malley said that trash talk sometime backfires and is a crucial mistake that some fighters seem to make.
"Short little people like Petr and Cody and Henry have short man syndrome, and they get angry at things and it’s personal. For me, it’s always going to be business. I think Conor [McGregor] was really good at that until the Khabib [Nurmagomedov] fight. I feel like that got too personal, and it played games with him. I definitely learned from that experience with Conor vs. Khabib, I can’t let it get personal.”
Sean O’Malley's last appearance inside the cage was at UFC 250, when he picked up a spectacular first-round walk-off KO win over former WEC champion Eddie Wineland. Sean O'Malley is slated to face Marlon Moraes up next and the pair were initially scheduled to fight at UFC 239, but the fight never came through as Sean O’Malley was forced off the card because trace amounts of Ostarine found in his system.