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Chael Sonnen lauded Sean O'Malley on the most recent episode of Beyond the Fight for the gimmick he puts on:
"It would be very hard for Sean to get away from his current gimmick. He would kill a character who the world loves. It would be amiss for Sean O'Malley to let his hair go back to its natural colour or to cut it and trim it or to not show up at an event with sunglasses and with some famous people around him and acting like he doesn't care. He works very hard to give the impression he's not working hard at all. It's his gimmick, it's great and everybody loves it," said Chael Sonnen.
Chael Sonnen is confident that 'Sugar' knows what he's doing. However, he also believes that O'Malley will find it difficult to move away from the gimmick. Sean O'Malley has an impressive 14-1 record in his MMA career so far. He put on a spectacular performance in his last fight against Kris Moutinho at UFC 264.
'Sugar' has been in the headlines lately for publicly denying fights against ranked opponents until he gets paid appropriately.
Chael Sonnen believes Sean O'Malley has earned higher placement on fight cards
Chael Sonnen believes that Sean O'Malley brings something unique to the table for the UFC. According to him, 'Sugar' should be placed higher on fight cards. Sonnen claimed that no other bantamweight in the UFC could "guarantee as high of a placement as Sean O'Malley, aside from the current champion."
Chael Sonnen then implied that Sean O'Malley brings more eyeballs than the current bantamweight champion of the UFC.
He claimed Aljamain Sterling gets higher slots on the card the UFC has to give them to him, while Sean O'Malley has earned his spot:
"The current champion [Aljamain Sterling] will be put in there because he has to be. Sean's put there because he's earned it, that's where he belongs," said Chael Sonnen.
