“He’s not just a scrub”
After a staph infection, Hawaii’s Louis forced Smolka [17-7-0] out, the search began to find a short-term replacement for 135-pound showman ‘Suga’ Sean O’Malley [13-1-0] at UFC 264 on July 10th.
The bright spark, O’Malley, is said to have had a number of contenders after the chance to face the high profile fighter. However, many fans raised their eyebrows after the announcement that the little-known Kris Moutinho [9-4-0] would catch up with Suga on his debut for promotion. Better still, the clash serves as a delicious hors d’oeuvre for the main McGregor vs Poirier III meal at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, live on PPV. Quite the introduction to the 5’7 ”Moutinho.
The first front runner in the fight against ‘Suga’ was Ricky Simón of Vancouver, Washington, but that fight fell out of bed when American Top Team Portland alumni were unable to hit the 135 pound bantamweight cut-off .
“They sent me a list of a couple of guys including Simón,” O’Malley told MMAJunkie, I told them, “I want to stay on the map. I had a great camp and my weight is tending towards a bantamweight fight . Find me someone who can do ’35’. They sent me a list of names, Simón was the toughest and I picked him. They called me and said, ‘He can’t gain weight.’ I don’t know if it was a misunderstanding that they put his name in there for ’45. I told the UFC that I was pretty clear that I wanted to fight at 35. So, I don’t know. There are a lot of people on Twitter who called me who were not on this list. I’m just glad I’m on the map at 35. ”
O’Malley comes in as a -900 favorite for the fight. However, despite fan criticism, the Montana Maverick remains cautious that Moutinho doesn’t get the props it deserves.
“A lot of people think it’s a loss to me. I make a lot of money to go out there and beat that guy out. This guy is tough. I saw one of his fights this morning and he’s not just a scrub, he’s not a nobody. Well, he’s a nobody because nobody really knows who he is. But to be fair, not many people know who Simón really is. He hit a couple of guys in the UFC. I can’t tell you how many fights he had in the UFC. So he comes in there, he shocks the world, it’s a huge fight for him. Props to him that he was committed to it. “
Though Moutinho obviously shows respect, 5’11 ” KO specialist O’Malley will still try to sizzle in Sin City.
“He might walk in there and think it’s a win-win for him. He goes out there and loses, he’s in the UFC. But I don’t just knock people out. I’m changing people’s careers. Mentally, the way I knock people out, they step into that cage and they’ll be different the next time they get out of there. So it could be the beginning of his career or the end of his career. So we’ll see. “
Do you expect Sean O’Malley to take the win at UFC 264?