Sean O'Malley did some dribbling around the Octagon before finally dunking a possessed Kris Moutinho to open the UFC 264 pay-per-view Saturday night.
O'Malley just couldn't miss. He landed a diverse array of sniping clean punches and front kicks at will in an absolute clinic. Yet, the green-haired Moutinho just kept eating the strikes and somehow managed to keep moving forward — even connecting on his own hard shots as part of his relentless pursuit of O'Malley around the Octagon.
Finally, O'Malley put together a few more clean, unanswered shots to trigger referee Herb Dean to bring a halt to the fight at 4:23 of the third round, giving the rising sensation his latest win — one he dedicated to the Phoenix Suns of his home state of Arizona. The Suns are up 2-0 in the NBA Finals with Game 3 Sunday night.
"Shout out to the Phoenix Suns," O'Malley said during his post-fight interview. "I was going for a little dribble, dribble, trying to finish him."
Despite many fans at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas booing what they thought to be a bad stoppage from Dean, O'Malley reminded them of the 'Suga Show' he just produced.
"That's a lot of head damage," he said of the clinical beating he put on a tough but thoroughly outclassed Moutinho. "He might not think that was a good stoppage, but it might have saved him a couple of years on his life because I was about to put him out for good."
Before exiting the Octagon, O'Malley hurled darts toward the rest of the bantamweight division, saying Cody Garbrandt hasn't won a fight since 2012, Petr Yan is "petrified," and Dominick Cruz is ducking him.