Sean O’Malley claims a supposedly intoxicated Luke Rockhold taunted his father during a previous encounter.
When he’s not front kicking zombies and helping friends retrieve stolen cars, Luke Rockhold apparently spends his time in small resort towns in the Northwest. At least, according to rising UFC bantamweight Sean O’Malley.
In the latest episode of the Timbo Sugar Show podcast, the 26-year-old fighter revealed a supposed encounter between Rockhold and his father in Whitefish in his home state of Montana. The former middleweight champion, O’Malley says, was intoxicated at the time.
“Luke was drunk and he kept telling my dad, ‘Chito beat your son’s ass!’” O’Malley told his coach, longtime friend, and podcast co-host Tim Welch.
“He kept saying — I guess they train together — but he kept saying ‘Chito beat your son’s ass!’ Why would you be like that?
“I’ve never been drunk and been, like, mean or wanted to, like, say shit like that.”
Welch later chimed in and attributed Rockhold’s alleged actions to “insecurities” but O’Malley then revealed another side of the story.
“Luke said, ‘Do you not know who I am?’ And my dad said, ‘Ah, you look familiar, but I don’t know.’ So that probably pissed him off.”
The lone loss on O’Malley’s record happened last August at UFC 252 against Marlon “Chito” Vera. The fight ended via first-round TKO, but in Sean’s mind, he remains undefeated.
As for Rockhold, the 36-year-old has verbally agreed to face Sean Strickland at UFC 268 in November. Once finalized, it will be his first Octagon appearance since his second-round knockout loss to Jan Blachowicz in 2019.