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Sean O’Malley is quickly becoming one of the most marketable stars in Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), and the surging bantamweight contender is ready to take full advantage of his growing popularity.
O’Malley, 25, returned to the MMA spotlight this past March after a two-year absence to defeat Jose Quinonez at UFC 248 via first-round TKO. That victory helped “Suga” regain any momentum he may have lost from his layoff, but his recent first-round finish over veteran Eddie Wineland at UFC 250 really helped push O’Malley to the next level. The finish went viral and O’Malley started to realize he’s one of the most promising young names in the sport today.
Unfortunately, O’Malley isn’t in the best position to take advantage of his new found stardom and benefit financially. In fact, “Suga” revealed back in June that he only made $3,000 out of $1 million in sales for his merchandise through UFC’s sponsorship deal with Reebok. O’Malley has been forced to search elsewhere for some extra income, including his custom marijuana strain and charging fight fans to watch his training camp footage.
In addition, O’Malley recently tested the waters by selling his own merchandise. To much surprise, “Suga” ended up selling out of his custom basketball jerseys in just 39 seconds, banking a total of $20,000. It was an incredible feat, especially considering O’Malley has fought just four times inside of the Octagon and isn’t even ranked in the bantamweight top 10.
“We did our first little drop with the jerseys. We had a limited edition jersey, 100 of them for $200. They sold out in 39 seconds,” O’Malley told MMA Fighting. “We auctioned off No. 420 and 69, those went for some good money on eBay.
“So that was exciting, kind of seeing the numbers we could do. I think over 4,000 people on the website trying to get the jerseys.”
Since O’Malley was able to sell out of his jerseys quickly just two months after his knockout win over Wineland the young bantamweight has decided to roll out new merch before his battle with Marlon Vera next weekend at UFC 252. O’Malley will be featured in the co-main event of the evening and his exposure to the MMA world will never be greater.
“We’re dropping some more stuff fight week,” O’Malley said. “Might be doing a collaboration with Cookies for some merch. Everything’s going awesome.
“The only thing I need to do is keep winning fights and everything around me goes up from there. Everything’s going good and can’t complain.”
The sky is the limit for O’Malley as we enter the final quarter of 2020. Fight fans knew “Suga” was going to be something special when he fought his way into UFC after a knockout performance on Dana White’s Contender Series, but few believed the 25-year-old could soar this high, this early.