Getty Sean O'Malley reacts following his bout.
UFC star Sean O’Malley gave his take on Paddy Pimblett after his latest outing against Jared Gordon.
This past Saturday, Pimblett faced Gordon in the co-main event of UFC 282 in Las Vegas, Nevada. Pimblett managed to come out on top of the judges’ scorecards after going the distance in a close-fought contest. He extended his winning run to three with the latest victory and is undefeated under the UFC banner.
The divisive result received backlash from fans and fighters in the community, many of whom called it a ‘robbery’ for Gordon.
O’Malley was in a similar position when he took on former interim bantamweight champion Petr Yan at UFC 280 in October. ‘Suga’ Sean put in an impressive performance and scored the biggest win of his career with a razor-thin split decision. There was controversy after the outcome as people voiced their support for Yan.
O’Malley Chimes In on Pimblett After UFC 282
The 28-year-old Montana native shared his thoughts on Pimblett’s win over Gordon at the final pay-per-view of the year.
“Paddy Pimblett vs. Jared Gordon, when we all watched it, there’s a bunch of people in the room,” O’Malley said in a video uploaded on his YouTube channel. “I don’t think there was one person that scored the fight (for Paddy), and it’s coming from me, who literally everyone just said that about a couple of months ago. If that’s how people felt watching my fight, I’m like, ‘oh.’”
“Everyone in our building was like, ‘damn, Paddy lost,’ a 100 percent. And then it was a unanimous decision. I thought Paddy won at least one round, and then they announced that I’m like, ‘what?’”
O’Malley’s head coach Tim Welch expressed a similar sentiment in his analysis.
Welch: “I don’t think that is. That was a razor-thin fight. Everyone walked away when that fight was over, like ‘damn, Paddy finally lost. Damn, he lost.’ I would f**king love to just talk to those judges for five minutes, maybe watch the rounds with them and say, ‘how do you see this as this guy winning? He’s hurting his knuckles with his chin?’”
O’Malley Believes Pimblett Could Use The Chance To Improve His Skills
O’Malley took issue with Pimblett’s calls to earn an extra $50,000 by getting Fight of the Night honors from company president Dana White. The bonus got awarded to the middleweight bout between Darren Till and Dricus du Plessis on the main card.
“I really wish I would have rewatched it because I also told everyone after let’s just rewatch it,” he said. “When I rewatched my fight against Yan, I’m like, I won that. So maybe I have to just rewatch it, and maybe I can see it differently. But in the moment watching that fight, I don’t know. Then Paddy was yelling, ‘Dana, 50 Gs.’ Then Dana was like, ‘yep, Fight of the Night.’”
Although he criticized Pimblett for his antics, O’Malley shared an important message for ‘The Baddy’ to learn from the experience and grow as a fighter.
“I bet Paddy takes away from that fight and goes, ‘okay, I need to f**king dial in. This is the time when I need to dial in; not get fat as f**k, and get more skilled.’ He has skills, he knows how to perform, he’s not bad, and he has a lot of potential; it’s just where he’s going to direct his energy. Is he going to get better or is he going to get fatter? We’ll see.”