Sean O’Malley says UFC matchmaker Sean Shelby treated him like sh-t for turning down a fight in New York.
Sean O’Malley found out the hard way what happens when you rub UFC matchmaker Sean Shelby the wrong way.
‘Suga’ revealed during an episode of The BrO’Malley Show (h/t Sportskeeda) that he recently turned down a fight at the high-stakes UFC 268 PPV in New York and that Shelby was not too happy with his decision.
“I don’t even know if I’m supposed to say this…Sean Shelby was mad at me,” O’Malley said. “Dude, I don’t wanna fight in New York. It’s far, the taxes are ridiculous, and Tim (Welch) has no-Gi or no, ADCC trials that weekend. And he told me that before I even potentially had a fight. So, that’s his thing, and I’m not gonna say, ‘No. I have a fight’. We’re doing it, especially when I could fight like a month later in Vegas.”
“Sean Shelby was just like, mad and like, ‘Fine. Go hang out with 6ix9ine’. Like, just acting like a f**king tool, dude,” O’Malley said. “So, I don’t know if I should’ve said that or not. But it’s like, dude, come on. What do you do?”
“They don’t need me,” O’Malley added. “But don’t treat me like that. Like, act like I’m not training or nothing. ‘Go, you’re hanging out with 6ix9ine, dude’. Like, I’m hanging out with him once. Well, three days, but, man, don’t make it up.”
O’Malley said Shelby treated him like a ‘piece of sh-t’ for snubbing him and that he would rather not deal with the latter going forward, preferring instead to negotiate with UFC president Dana White.
“Yeah, so, it’s like, ‘Cool, dude. Treat me like a piece of s**t’. No, it’s like, dude, I would rather not deal with him at all and just deal with (UFC president) Dana (White)”.
The highly touted UFC bantamweight also alluded to issues with fighter pay, but was scarce on details.
“He said, ‘I know you’re going to be asking for a lot of money’. It’s like, no s**t! I’m pulling f**king numbers, dude,” O’Malley said. “You can’t deny that. It’s like, why do they have a problem paying someone what they’re worth? That shouldn’t be an issue. That should be like, especially when I’m blowing up like that. Those last two fights – Third-round finishes – Handing out brain damage. Like, dude, you should be like, ‘Hell yeah. I’m gonna pay you a lot. You’ve earned it’.”
O’Malley (14-1 MMA, 7-1 UFC) is on a two-fight win streak against Thomas Almeida and Kris Moutinho. Despite being unranked and relatively unproven at bantamweight he is currently one of the hottest commodities in the UFC.