Six weeks before the biggest fight of his UFC career, Sean O’Malley suffered a rib injury.
‘Sugar’ stepped inside the Octagon on August 19, 2023, for his first crack at UFC gold, squaring off with then-bantamweight world champion Aljamain Sterling at UFC 292 in Boston, Mass. Less than a minute into the second round, O’Malley delivered a picture-perfect counter right that sent the ‘Funk Master’ crashing to the canvas. A few follow-up shots later and we had ourselves a new 135-pound king.
Following the fight, O’Malley revealed that he had sustained a rib injury while training that prevented him from grappling for the final month and a half of his fight camp.
Courtesy of the promotion’s newest documentary, Fight Inc: Inside The UFC, we now have footage of the exact moment that Sean O’Malley sustained the injury.
Sparring footage from the Inside the UFC documentary shows Sean O’Malley injuring his rib while sparring just 6 weeks before the Aljamain Sterling fight
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Sean O’Malley slated for 2024 returns to take on the division’s No. 1 contender
Fortunately, the injury played little role in the fight itself.
Since then, O’Malley has added a successful title defense to his resume, handily defeating Marlon ‘Chito’ Vera in the UFC 299 headliner in Miami. Next on the docket for ‘Sugar’ is a showdown against the division’s No. 1 ranked contender, Merab Dvalishvili.
No official announcements have been made, but both fighters have pointed toward their inevitable clash going down on September 16 when the promotion heads to Sphere in Las Vegas for UFC 306.
