UFC’s Flyweight kingpin is once again demanding “Suga” release old training footage of him owning the colorful Bantamweight roost-ruler.
Alexandre Pantoja will defend his Flyweight title against Australian dark horse, Steve Erceg, at UFC 301 this weekend (Sat., May 4, 2024) inside Farmasi Arena in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. If he wins, “The Cannibal” wants a much higher-profile opponent next:
Box office-busting Bantamweight champion, Sean O’Malley.
And this “super” fight request doesn’t come out of thin air. Pantoja and O’Malley have beef that dates back nearly a decade to when they sparred at The MMA Lab in Arizona.
Twas a first round TKO
— Sean O’Malley (@SugaSeanMMA) May 1, 2024
“Right now, the champion for the Bantamweight is Sean O’Malley, and I have some history with him,” Pantoja explained to New York Post. “Before I start talking about him, he talked first about me. And I don’t understand how he start talking because I’m sparring with him like six years ago for my first UFC fight, and he said some bad things about that.
“It’s crazy because he recorded the sparring,” Pantoja continued. “And at the end of the training I say, ‘Hey, send to me to the video, and then I can see [our] training and everything.’ He never passed the training for me. I asked, ‘Can you talk with your friend so he send them the video?’ And he say to me, ‘He not gonna send to you, bro. You smash him. He’s not gonna send to you.’ I say, ‘Okay, that’s okay. Doesn’t matter.’
“And then he’s talking about this,” Pantoja concluded. “He say he beat me. He say he beats me, like, ‘I’m not in UFC right now, and I beat this guy [in the] UFC,’ something like that. They’re weird, because the first time I see him, he’s a nice guy, very talented, very humble kid. “And now you see all the stuff he do, different style. He can do that. That’s okay. He make his money. He’s happy.”
O’Malley was quick to respond to Pantoja, declaring, “Twas a first round TKO.”
“Suga” has gone further in-depth on the fateful sparring session with Pantoja, claiming he finished the Brazilian Flyweight before gassing and getting choked out in a third sparring round.
“Does he want me to post it? I finished him in the first round — I can post that,” he said last August. “I wasn’t gonna bring it up, if that’s what he wants … I was f—king smoking joints the night before just like not expecting Henry Cejudo and him to roll into the gym.”
It’s time to post all these alleged videos …
Remember that MMAmania.com will deliver LIVE round-by-round, blow-by-blow coverage of the entire UFC 301 fight card right here, starting with the early ESPN+ “Prelims” matches online, which are scheduled to begin at 6 p.m. ET (simulcast on ESPN2 at 8 p.m. ET), before the pay-per-view (PPV) main card start time at 10 p.m. ET (also on ESPN+).
To check out the latest and greatest UFC 301: “Pantoja vs. Erceg” news and notes be sure to hit up our comprehensive event archive right here.