On the evening of September 15, current UFC bantamweight champion Sean O’Malley will make his second title defense. At UFC 306, Sugar will face challenger Merab Dvalishvili, who is riding a 10-fight win streak heading into this fight.
The UFC 306 tournament is dedicated to Mexico’s Independence Day and is officially called UFC Night Riyadh Season. This is an extremely important event for the promotion, which will be held at the famous Sphere Arena, and Dana White has repeatedly promised all MMA fans that it will be a great show. From the point of view of the visual component and the wow effect, this will be a great tournament, considering that about $20 million has already been invested in it.
“Sphere” Arena in Las Vegas
Photo: Ethan Miller/Getty Images
And it’s very significant that Sean O’Malley is headlining the card. They had already put together a very strong UFC 299 tournament for the American, stacking it with superstars and forsaking any chance of another title fight there. For example, Islam Makhachev had expressed his desire to perform before Ramadan in March, but the UFC was adamant about making O’Malley a key figure. And now they’re gifting him another big tournament where he’ll be the big star.
The UFC 306 card has been criticized for having too many Mexicans who are not well known to the general public. That’s why Shawn, as a superstar, should be the saving grace.
Chael Sonnen, for one, already believes that there is no cooler star in the UFC than Sugar: “Sean O’Malley is the biggest star in MMA right now. “Red Panty Night” is still going on, but Conor doesn’t do any kind of MMA. Even if he wanted to, he wouldn’t step into the octagon tonight. I’ll tell you what, Khabib and St-Pierre attended more UFC events this year than McGregor. In my opinion, Sean O’Malley, as far as the biggest MMA star goes, is the hardest working guy outside the cage that the division has ever seen. This guy is one of the top 5 fighters working outside the octagon in history.”
And Dana White, after Shawn became champion, was just elated: “How do I like O’Malley’s performance? What do you think? Damn, he knocked him out! Before the fight I was thinking, how can Sean beat this guy? How can he stop his takedowns? Yeah, he might be able to stop a couple of takedowns, but not all of them. Even Cejudo couldn’t do it! But you know, styles make fights. And he knocked him out. It was the biggest fight in bantamweight history. O’Malley is a true superstar.”
Sean O’Malley and Dana White
Photo: Chris Unger/Zuffa LLC via Getty Images
O’Malley can be called a star of the new generation, and it is very difficult to compare him with Conor McGregor, if only because their paths to popularity are completely different. The goal and result are similar, but the paths to achieve it are very different. Notorious was a natural charisma and trash talk that spread everywhere. O’Malley does not have this, his punches at press conferences do not break the media space, besides, at public UFC events he seems a little lost, as if out of place.
But O’Malley is good at what is very valuable today: creating and promoting content on social media. Sean started investing in his personal brand a long time ago. It has a clear structure, it covers all the needs of his target audience: funny videos, podcasts, interviews, a wide range of his own merchandising – he has it all. A bright image also works in his favour and he constantly offers new content to his subscribers. This made him popular even before he joined the UFC – he was already a popular fighter thanks to his social media, and in combination with the powerful PR machine of the O’Malley promotion, it completely took off.
Sean came to the UFC with an 8-0 record, making his mark on Dana White’s Contender Series. Already under the auspices of the promotion, Sugar racked up 10 wins with one loss, which he successfully avenged. Another fight was declared invalid. And after his victory over Vera, the American is ranked sixth in the UFC P4P rankings.
In the last fight, O’Malley destroyed Vera:
Are you not making fun of O’Malley anymore? The champion easily defended the belt, defeating his opponent.
Of course, social media promotion wouldn’t mean anything if Shawn was a bad or weak fighter. The viral one-punch knockouts did their job, and Sugar literally has no boring, dull fights. Sean is very knowledgeable when it comes to business, and thanks to this, he was able to become a star. Even before the fight with Peter Yan, he acquired five houses, cool cars, and continues to develop his business empire, while flying to fights on private jets.
UFC always tries to keep up with the times, and now there is clearly a generational change of fighters in MMA. O’Malley is one of those who is the future of this promotion, one of the first fighters who decided to conquer the Internet seriously and succeeded. In the future, Sean plans to appear on the covers of fashion magazines and launch a clothing line. Even now, as a champion, he claims that he has not done enough. So we are definitely expecting new bright episodes with the participation of O’Malley, and there is an opportunity to see in real time how one of the main superstars of the promotion shines more and more.
Sean O’Malley
Photo: Megan Briggs/Getty Images
Jon Jones recently singled out O’Malley as the most interesting fighter in the UFC right now: “Honestly, it may sound like a cliché, I go with the crowd, but what interests me the most is Sean O’Malley. He has an image. He reminds me of McGregor. He’s authentic, he has that rags-to-riches story that is valued in our country. I like him. I wonder how far he can go, he’s still young. To handle Aljamain like that… I always bet on fighters, but O’Malley was able to win. I’ll actually be buying his PPVs for years to come.”
And it appears that a lot more people will be buying PPV for tournaments featuring O’Malley.
