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Sean O’Malley is thought to have suffered another foot fracture in his loss to Marlon Vera at UFC 252.
Surging bantamweight prospect Sean O’Malley suffered a huge setback against Marlon Vera this past Saturday, as the 25-year-old is thought to have suffered the same injury at UFC 252 as he did in his 2018 bout against Andre Soukhamthath at UFC 222.
O’Malley twisted his right foot midway through the first round of the UFC 252 co-main event and, despite his best efforts to stay in the fight, was finished with a barrage of ground-and-pound at the end of the round.
It’s not known what, exactly, happened to O’Malley’s foot but Megan Olivi reports that the Glendale, Arizona-based fighter is thought to have suffered a foot fracture.
“According to cageside commentator Megan Olivi, O’Malley told her it was the same injury he suffered as in his 2018 fight with Andre Soukhamthath. Olivi tracked O’Malley down and spoke to him as doctors were tending to him backstage, but wasn’t able to get more out of him as “he was just trying to meditate and not be in so much pain,” MMA Mania’s Ryan Harkness reported on Sunday.
Despite suffering the same injury against Soukhamthath, O’Malley went on to win that fight via unanimous decision. The MMA Lab product revealed after the fight that he is prone to foot injuries.
“They said it wasn’t broken, but they said I’ve got a previous fracture in there from before the fight, so I’m gonna figure out what’s wrong with it,” he told MMA Fighting back in 2018. “It’s hurt pretty much nonstop, so we’ll see. I didn’t (know it was previously fractured). Every fight I’m in I throw a lot of kicks. I land with my feet a lot, I’ve had a lot of foot issues because of that. I’ve had a lot of foot injuries so I wasn’t surprised.”
“It was a super weird feeling. I couldn’t feel my whole foot when I put it on the ground. Every time I put pressure on it, it wasn’t there — it was super weird. It sucked. What I understand is it would be better if it was broken because it would be easier to heal than ligament tears. I think I would almost rather it would be broken, but we’re going to check it out and we’ll see where we can go from there.”