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Sean O'Malley recently shed light on a pre-bout injury he had before clashing with Aljamain Sterling.
Speaking to Megan Olivi for ESPN MMA, the UFC bantamweight champion discussed how he was not in optimal health on the night where he captured the belt.
Despite getting a highlight reel knockout finish in the second stanza of the contest, O'Malley was meaningfully compromised from showcasing a fully well-rounded game if the fight went to the mat.
Addressing the specifics of that UFC 292 situation last August, O'Malley said:
"Main event, Boston, I had to show up. You know if it would have been; I tried to grapple a little bit. I was not able to grapple at all obviously. I've said that plenty of times but I was able to kickbox. My whole goal going into the fight before I was injured was do not let him take me down."
"That was the whole gameplan. I wasn't shying away from that. I don't want him to take me down. So after I had the rib injury, that was the gameplan. I literally could not let him take me down."
Check out the O'Malley chat where he touches on the pre-Sterling injury below:
Sean O'Malley and his first UFC title defense
Beating arguably the bantamweight GOAT in Aljamain Sterling to capture the 135-pound belt is a massive feather in anyone's cap. But Sean O'Malley seems determined to achieve far more.
Not only does the colorful champion look to embark on his all-important first title defense, but he will do so against a very familiar foe.
'Sugar' readies for a rematch with the only man to have beaten him in his pro-MMA career, Marlon Vera. 'Chito' first fought the 29-year-old current titleholder while both were on the come-up in the division. Vera bested O'Malley via first-round TKO at UFC 252 in August 2020 during their first fight.
The Montana native has long since claimed that he sees the loss as something more akin to a fluke and is not representative of Vera being the better martial artist on a skill-for-skill level.
Sean O'Malley versus Marlon Vera II transpires at UFC 299, and the pay-per-view main event matchup goes down on March 9.
