All the trash talk all week seems to have been validated because after tonight Sean O’Malley looks every bit the part of being a star and future contender in the UFC. All week, O’Malley talked the talk, and despite all the impressive performances to date, the doubt remained. After tonight, he should be queued up for a step up in competition and a quick turnaround as well.
Sean O’Malley Continues to Look the Part with a Near-Perfect Performance
Making no friends this week, Sean O’Malley was taking on everyone outside the cage this week in the lead-up to his fight against Raulian Paiva to kick off the UFC 269 main card. On UFC Embedded, he talked about going after Paiva at the press conference but had the obstacle to overcome that he didn’t speak English, it turned out that was the only obstacle he would present when it was all said and done.
From the start of round one, O’Malley was using his long reach to keep Paiva on the outside of his punches and when he would try and rush in to get a handle on him he would avoid it with ease. After realizing he couldn’t get him to the ground, Paiva seemed to almost break and know the outcome was inevitable from there.
Startin’ to heat up 🔥#UFC269 pic.twitter.com/jz6emaIdWP
— UFC (@ufc) December 12, 2021
O’Malley would rock him with a strong overhand right before throwing a vicious combination that included a ton of right hands. A left hook to the body would cause Paiva to drop his hands, and then a right hand put him out. It will be interesting to see who the UFC pairs with O’Malley next because he is sure to be ranked now and thus should see the biggest step up in the competition of his career.
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