The UFC bantamweight tries to walk it back after unsavory comments made on Sean O’Malley’s podcast.
Sean O’Malley has been been on quite a run since his loss to Marlon Vera in his last outing, saying more and more outlandish things. But it turns out he’s been saving his truly hottest of hot takes for his podcast, The Timbo Sugarshow. And this time, he’s managed to snag Casey Kenney into some serious unpleasantness.
This segment of the show (hat tip to Twitter user UFC_Obsessed) starts off with O’Malley discussing hypothetical use of heroin. It’s a brief exchange where he claims he wouldn’t get addicted because he’s “not f—king stupid“. But then the clip pivots to O’Malley’s friend, coach and co-host asking Kenney if he would have sex with UFC bantamweight Megan Anderson.
Was curious what Casey Kenney might say about Dominick Cruz, but between O’Malley’s take on heroin and the Megan Anderson question, why ??? pic.twitter.com/6lluwf8NY8
— MS (@UFC_Obsessed) January 28, 2021
Welch: “Would you smash Megan Anderson or no, Casey?”
Kenney: “Probably not, man. She’s not too … well—
Welch: “Be honest…“
Kenney: “I mean, if it came down to it, and it was like 5 a.m., 4, she’s a 5 a.m.-er, 4 a.m.-er.
(O’Malley laughs)
Kenney: “Just us two hanging out, like, ‘F—k it, let’s do it.’”
Welch: “She’s piggybacking you to her room…“
Kenney: “Yeah. Like, f—k it.”
Welch: “Yeah, for sure.“
This didn’t take long to reach Anderson, who was angry the exchange took place and that Kenney will fight on the same card as her soon:
I guess MMA is a line of work where you can publicly talk about whether you’d have sex with a coworker in an utterly degrading way and face zero consequences.
Disgusting behavior and it’s unfortunate that he’ll be fighting on my card in March. https://t.co/hJd1OuHIyD
— Megan Anderson (@MeganA_mma) January 28, 2021
This prompted Kenney to issue an apology:
@MeganA_mma I’m sorry this upset you. I will be more careful with my words. I was just answering a question and thought it was all a joking matter. I see I was wrong and I’m sorry. Best of luck with training camp and your fight.
— Casey Kenney (@ckmma135) January 28, 2021
While perhaps starting off with “I’m sorry this upset you“ may not be the best thing, it’s an apology and an admission of guilt nonetheless. What’s most unfortunate is that the three felt so comfortable to discuss this in an open discussion widely available to a public audience.
But also, attorney Lucas Middlebrook mentioned something important, and that’s the fact that this may be a violation of the UFC’s code of conduct. Of course, we’ve seen that this is not even worth being bothered about because the UFC has been lax regarding the code of conduct to the point where it’s not entirely relevant.
Whether or not there’s any consequences for O’Malley or Kenney is yet to be seen, but at least Kenney tried to own up to it. Unfortunately, this has opened the floodgates to tons of terrible replies to Megan’s justified complaint, which speaks to the larger problem of this type of conduct being viewed as not only acceptable, but encouraged when it comes to talking about women in MMA.
Let’s just hope things are cordial when Kenney and Anderson inevitably cross paths during fight week for UFC 259.