Sean O’Malley was convinced he’d be leaving the White House with one of the post-fight bonuses.
O’Malley halted Aiemann Zahabi’s win streak when adding another stylish knockout to his already impressive highlight reel.
With all seven fights ending in a finish and the card being closed out by an incredible clash between Ilia Topuria and Justin Gaethje, there was stiff competition for the bonuses.
Despite this, ‘Suga’ was still confident that the way he dropped his opponent and saluted the audience would be enough to boost his payday.
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What more does Sean O’Malley need to do to get a rematch with Petr Yan?
‘Suga’ ended Aiemann Zahabi’s 7-fight win streak at UFC Freedom 250.
Sean O’Malley says he’s not complaining after expressing bonus snub frustrations
At the post-fight press conference where Dana White announced that Justin Gaethje won two post-fight bonuses, all of the night’s winners were on stage at the same time.
This meant that the likes of Sean O’Malley had to stick around until the event was over before they could truly celebrate their wins.
The former UFC bantamweight champion voiced frustrations about not getting a bonus when finally getting to recap his fight via his YouTube channel in the early hours of Monday morning.
Having now recorded back-to-back wins inside the Octagon, ‘Suga’ also highlighted how the highs and lows of MMA don’t compare.
“Then we did a f—— pointless press conference where I didn’t get a bonus and it was f—— ridiculous,” he said. “I was just telling Tim, like these wins feel good, like it feels good but if I would have lost, those are just so much worse than wins. It’s like, why even do this s—.”
“Dude, Gaethje getting a double bonus. I thought for sure I was getting a bonus,” he added later in the video. “I was so confident… Hey, I’m not complaining.”
O’Malley did earn the standard $25,000 bonus for producing a finish, but remarked that he’ll use this to pay taxes and get back home.
While he might not have gotten the payout he was hoping for, the 31-year-old still came away from the White House with a very significant win.
O’Malley has been able to beat two contenders to bounce back from suffering consecutive losses for the first time in his career.
With his first finish since he knocked out Aljamain Sterling to win the bantamweight gold, he’s certainly back in the title picture.
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