Sean O’Malley has spoken out for the first time since suffering defeat at UFC 252 against Marlon “Chito” Vera. Speaking on the Timbo Sugar Show podcast, O’Malley detailed the events that occurred on fight night.
The bout ended in a Vera securing a first-round TKO over O’Malley, however, many believed this came due to an injury that O’Malley had sustained in the fight.
Regarding the result O’Malley expressed that while he is disappointed to have lost it did not matter the circumstance, Chito won.
“He won, it sucks for me because I’m like, god I lost to someone who I look at as not very good. I look at him and I feel like, he’s not that good and I fu***ng lost to him.”
The formerly undefeated fighter expressed that the camp leading up to the event was perfect and everything seemed to be going well on the night.
“Even in the back warming up, everything was perfect.” Said O’Malley. “I’m in good shape, I’m in Fu****g good shape, I’m breaking this fu***r 100 percent in my mind. Get back there doing out warmup everything is going perfect, about five minutes before they said alright you’ve got to walk I’m like hey Brandon do you reckon you can loosen up my ankle brace? It’s like Fu***ng tight, walked out, everything felt good. Got in there, was in front of him I’m like, in my mind I’m like this is easy. He’s slow, he can’t hit me.”
O’Malley continues explaining the pain he could feel in his leg felt the exact same as the pain from his previous foot injury. “I remember the pain that I had in the top of my foot, the lisfranc surgery. I had the same pain but all around my ankle and I remember dragging my foot up against the cage and even still didn’t feel in danger.”
Since the event, many viewers and analysts have broken down the fight determining that the injury came from a kick thrown by Vera, throwing away any doubt that the win was not genuine.