Sean O'Malley took the MMA world by storm when he appeared on Dana White's Contender Series with a highlight-reel knockout over Alfred Khashakyan in July 2017.
The hits have kept on coming for O'Malley as he's 5-1 in the UFC, with three of those wins coming via stoppage. The dynamic 26-year-old returns to the Octagon for the second time in 2021 on Saturday when he kicks off the UFC 264 main card against late replacement Kris Moutinho.
O'Malley's rise came instantly on the Contender Series and continues to gain momentum with each passing fight. Some of it is due to his popularity on Instagram, YouTube, and Twitch, but it's how O'Malley fights that has been the precursor to his success.
We haven't seen the rapid ascent of someone like O'Malley since Conor McGregor took the sports world by storm when he made his UFC debut in April 2013. While O'Malley isn't where McGregor is currently at, the similarities are there to where a case can be made that he's on his way there.
"I think as far as popularity goes, I'm in the right direction," O'Malley told DAZN News. "I think skill set, I think I'm better. I think I have more tools, more weapons, more skilled.
"That's obviously my opinion, but I just truly believe in my skill set. I think you can say that I’m the bantamweight Conor. I think at the end of the day I’m “Suga”. You can't compare “Suga” to anyone. I think I’m going to take over and just be something way bigger than anyone's ever seen."
Before his whiskey and clothing line took off, McGregor's career skyrocketed due to him stopping everyone in his path and his Muhammad Ali style of trash-talking, O'Malley's sudden fame is also because of what O'Malley's put in away from fighting.
Competing in the premier MMA organization is a factor. O'Malley has his own website, SugaShop.co, which is his merchandise line that includes t-shirts, hats, hoodies, and jerseys. "Suga" also has over 1.5 million followers on Instagram, over 273,000 followers on Twitter, over 252,000 subscribers on YouTube, and over 83,000 followers on Twitch.
Perhaps most importantly, everything O'Malley is doing isn't because he's being forced to. It's a fact of its things he loves to do, and it just so happens he's getting paid good money to do it.
"I just do things that I enjoy doing," O'Malley said. "I think the reason I became such a big star is obviously the performances, the way I'm knocking people out, and then I'm going to train for a couple of hours a day, and I've always enjoyed gaming, so I'm going to go stream now and make money on that and then creating podcasts with my coach Tim, my brother Daniel.
"I'm really doing things that I enjoy doing that turned into revenue. Streaming on Twitch is just something I've liked to do.
"I think it helps obviously engaging in my with my fans creating content on YouTube, Instagram. They're all six-figure incomes. I make more money depending on how many times I fight a year doing other stuff.
"Fighting definitely helps. All those other platforms without the UFC, and I don't have that big platform. But Instagram, YouTube, Twitch, Tik Tok, all those things are just really things that I enjoy doing that somehow you make money doing it."
McGregor is known for taking short-notice fights. Whether it was Chad Mendes at UFC 189 replacing Jose Aldo or UFC 196 when then-lightweight champion Rafael dos Anjos bowed out and Nate Diaz stepped in, the opponent didn't matter. All that mattered to McGregor was he was fighting. Just line them up, and he will be in the Octagon.
It's the same for O'Malley. When his original opponent at UFC 264, Louis Smolka, bowed out, O'Malley just wanted an opponent at 135 pounds as that's what he prepared his entire camp around. Moutinho was the one brought to him and O'Malley without hesitation. McGregor said recently he is a business and a man. O'Malley views it the same.
"People are so mad that I'm fighting this unranked guy that no one knows, and he's not signed to UFC," O'Malley said. "I'm a business man that is good at fighting. I'm getting paid the same whether I fight him or Francis Ngannou.
"I'm not getting paid any more to fight with anyone different, so I'm going to take this opportunity to go out there, get a nice knockout, get paid, and see who's next. I would consider myself a business man for sure. I’m a business man/athlete."
Before McGregor competed for his first UFC title, he fought in two main events against Diego Brandao and Dennis Siver. O'Malley is one of the marquee names in the bantamweight division and is rapidly rising to being "the guy" in the weight class. A win over Moutinho wouldn't net him a championship in his next time out, but it keeps the train rolling along.
Like McGregor, O'Malley sees where his future. But unlike McGregor, the brash O'Malley isn't going to fight at the top of the marquee unless UFC gold is on the line.
"People are so mad that I'm fighting this unranked guy that no one knows, and he's not signed to UFC," O'Malley said. "I'm a business man that is good at fighting. I'm getting paid the same whether I fight him or Francis Ngannou. I'm not getting paid any more to fight with anyone different, so I'm going to take this opportunity to go out there, get a nice knockout, get paid, and see who's next. I would consider myself a business man for sure. I’m a business man/athlete."
Before McGregor competed for his first UFC title, he fought in two main events against Diego Brandao and Dennis Siver. O'Malley is one of the marquee names in the bantamweight division and is rapidly rising to being "the guy" in the weight class. A win over Moutinho wouldn't net him a championship in his next time out, but it keeps the train rolling along.
Like McGregor, O'Malley sees where his future. But unlike McGregor, the brash O'Malley isn't going to fight at the top of the marquee unless UFC gold is on the line.
"I don't want to fight no main events unless it’s for a title," O'Malley bluntly said. "I'm not going to go fight ten extra minutes. It's not even the fight itself. It's the training that's involved for a five-round (fight) compared to a three-rounder. Is the money worth it? It’s like $20,000 extra or something like that. That's not really f—ing worth it. So I'm straight.
"I'm good with being co-main (event). I'll fight co-mains until I get the title shot and be the headliner on the pay-per-views. I think with this fight, go out there, knock him out spectacular fashion, call out the dude I want to fight next, and they (UFC) gives me that fight, I knock him out, and then I'm fighting for a title and then moving up to (1)45 here in the next couple years.
"That's how I see this playing out. But fighting is f—ing crazy. Anything could happen. So that's the idea. I'm not stuck to it. This game has already taken me on a bunch of different paths that I wasn't planning on. I just go with the flow. So, whatever happens, is good with me. I think I knock this dude out. I make a good call out, and I get that opponent. I go out there, knock him out, and I get a title shot."
Will O'Malley be as big of a star as McGregor? Time will tell, and it will be a fun journey to watch.