UFC 264: O’Malley eyes title run once he beats late call-up Moutinho (2024)

Sean O’Malley says he’s happy to welcome Kris Moutinho to “The Sugar Show” at UFC 264 on Saturday night in Las Vegas but he thinks there’s only one way this bantamweight bout is going to end.

“He comes at me, he gets knocked out, or he wants to dance around the outside, he gets knocked out. It really doesn‘t matter,” O’Malley told SCMP MMA. “He gets to pick how he wants to get knocked out, coming forward or going backwards.”

The 28-year-old Moutinho (9-4) is a late replacement for fellow American Louis Smolka (17-7), who last week was downed by a staph infection O’Malley (13-1) has been vocal in questioning.

It was a booking that came as somewhat of a surprise, given how little is known about Moutinho before his UFC debut, and given the fact a clash against Smolka was supposed to help raise the profile of the wildly popular O’Malley even further.

The 26-year-old from Montana freely admits he knows little about what to expect, outside what he thinks the result will be.

“I haven‘t really watched [Moutinho] to be honest,” says O’Malley. “I think my coaches watched a little bit. I’m curious to be able to see him here [during] fight week. I’m sure I’ll see him around the hotel and size him up, see how big he is. You know, I’m just very confident in my skills. I’m not too worried about what he brings to the table. I’m confident I’ll go out there and take him out.”

It speaks volumes about O’Malley’s marketability as much as his unique and crowd-pleasing style of fighting that there have been reports that any number of bantamweights actually wanted to replace Smolka, among them the 10th-ranked Georgian-American Merab Dvalishvili (13-4).

Make note of the fact O’Malley remains unranked, despite all the promise he has shown and the run of 3-1 since he returned to the Octagon in 2020, after a two-year break enforced because of a failed drug test (ostarine).

“It’s funny,” O’Malley says of those reports. “I‘m not even ranked in the top 15 [but] you see guys in the top 15 calling me out. So it just goes to show that I’m the most popular guy in the bantamweight division. I’m slowly growing to become the most popular guy in the UFC, after a few more knockouts. And when I get the belt, I definitely will be the most popular guy in the UFC.”

The one blemish since O’Malley returned came against Ecuador’s 13th-ranked Marlon Vera (17-7-1), with a calf kick rendering the American’s right leg next to useless, and Vera capitalising quickly and effectively with a TKO as the first round drew to a close. Next time out O’Malley pulverised Brazilian Thomas Almeida (22-5) for a third-round KO that showcased all the angles he comes from, and the moves he tends to make.

So O’Malley quickly moved on from the loss. And he’s certain his fan base did too.

“I think it was forgotten,” he says. “[Vera] said it was a calf kick. It wasn‘t. He threw a calf kick and his toe landed on the peroneal nerve. And it completely shut my foot out. And I still was beating his ass. I was still slapping him upside the head on one foot. Anybody that has any intelligence knows that was a complete fluke. Now a lot of ‘The Sugar Show’ fans, the true Show fans, they just want to see me perform. Sugar fans are excited for me to go out there and perform better no matter who it is.”

Beat Moutinho – impressively – and a ranked opponent must surely be on the cards for O’Malley, even though Smolka might still be keen for a rebooking.

“I wasn‘t very excited to be honest with that [Smolka] fight in general in the first place. So yeah, that fight probably won’t happen unless he starts winning some fights and then we meet down the road,” says O’Malley. “I mean, there’s a storyline now so it could potentially happen.

“Now we got this kid so, yeah, I‘m just excited. I’m prepared for 15 minutes and prepared to go to war. You know, this kid could be way tougher than anyone thinks. Or I go out there and put his lights out. That’s fine. And then a ranked opponent obviously is the next step. It’s about time [and] that would be ideal.”