After many fighters argued that Petr Yan was robbed at UFC 280, Sean O’Malley’s coach took to Twitter to defend his pupil.
While the much-hyped war between Petr Yan and Sean O’Malley at UFC 280 delivered all the action a fan could hope for (watch the highlights here), many people were left upset after O’Malley was handed a split-decision victory by the judges.
Even Sean O’Malley seemed a bit surprised by the win, admitting that he wasn’t sure if he’d done enough to clinch a decision.
“I didn’t know how it was going to go,” he told ESPN’s Brett Okamoto backstage. “It’s so hard, you get cracked, you get rocked, you fight for fifteen minutes. I can’t tell you what happened each minute, I’d have to go back and watch it. So I was just enjoying that moment and whatever happened, happened.”
The consensus amongst fighters and media members watching the bout was almost unanimous: they thought Petr Yan had won. One MMA fan compiled a Twitter thread with over 25 UFC fighters calling the decision a robbery.
Thread of fighters who believe Yan won/was robbed : pic.twitter.com/xkCZvJKYEo
— Shifting Left Hook (@PoirierEnjoyer) October 22, 2022
“Close fight, some of you guys might have thought I lost, some of you might have thought I won,” Sean O’Malley said in a YouTube stream once he returned to the fighter hotel. “End of the day, they said I won. I haven’t rewatched the fight. I’m excited to, though. Tim [Welch, O’Malley’s coach] has been in the f—ing bathroom for like fifteen minutes just f—ing screaming in there.”
Following his rewatch / screaming session, O’Malley’s coach Tim Welch took to Twitter to call out some of the “Suga” critics.
Let’s hear it h8er pussies!
— Tim Welch (@TimwelchMT) October 22, 2022
let’s see his face
— Tim Welch (@TimwelchMT) October 23, 2022
— Tim Welch (@TimwelchMT) October 23, 2022
Worst robbery I’m UFC history, I hope our sport doesn’t become boxing @danawhite
— Henry Cejudo (@HenryCejudo) October 22, 2022
.@HenryCejudo pic.twitter.com/r4Dj7NIXcz
— Tim Welch (@TimwelchMT) October 22, 2022
As Sean O’Malley said, though: however you called it, the end result was a win for “The Suga Show.” And while he admitted it probably wasn’t his ‘Conor vs. Aldo’ moment, he was happy with what he’d get out of the win.
“I mean, what’s considered a Conor – Aldo moment,” he said at the UFC 280 post-fight press conference. “I gotta knock someone out in thirteen seconds? Because that’s gonna be hard to do. But as far as blowing up, I think … I don’t know, we’ll have to see the next couple of weeks. I’m sure my brand deals, and I would almost guarantee I’m gonna sit down and renegotiate my [UFC] contract after that.”
What the win won’t land him, it seems, is a title shot. While UFC president Dana White said Yan vs. O’Malley was an extremely close fight that could have gone either way, he was in no rush to declare Sean O’Malley next in line for the bantamweight title.
O’Malley vs. Vera for the No. 1 contender spot, anybody? Let us know what you think of that fight (and the results of this fight) in the comments, Maniacs.