O’Malley on Garbrandt’s KO: ‘There’s levels to striking’

‘Sugar’ Sean gave his fellow bantamweight some props for Garbrandt’s stellar KO of Raphael Assuncao… kinda… sorta… not really.

It looks like Sean O’Malley has targeted the fight he’d like to get next in the bantamweight division: none other than former UFC champion Cody Garbrandt. Garbrandt scored a stunning KO victory over longtime contender Raphael Assuncao in the co-main event of the UFC 250 PPV, with his win coming just a couple bouts after O’Malley’s own remarkable knockout victory over Eddie Wineland in the PPV opener.

From the moment Assuncao hit the canvas, O’Malley has been throwing some low key shade ‘No Love’’s way. Starting with a one word tweet sent immediately after Garbrandt’s win.

In case O’Malley’s intentions of downplaying Garbrandt’s work weren’t clear enough, he made the message that much clearer in a recent video that’s been circulating around social media.

“I’m gonna go over the two epic knockouts over the weekend: mine and Cody’s,” O’Malley told the camera, wiping his nose as he said Garbrandt’s name.

O’Malley then performed a comical windup version of Garbrandt’s right hook, before turning to the camera with an understated, “So that was pretty cool—I dunno, there’s levels to striking.”

Getting under Garbrandt’s skin hasn’t been the most difficult thing for past opponents to do, and it may just generate exactly the kind of heat the UFC wants to make the fight happen. If it pays off, it seems like a major opportunity for O’Malley to add to his burgeoning star power, and a high risk, low reward situation for the former champ.