5 reasons why Sean O'Malley could be the next bantamweight champion

#4. He uses his reach and height well

Stefan Struve is a cautionary tale of a fighter who is blessed with the height and reach to dictate the proceedings of every fight but has never developed any reliable means of taking advantage of these physical attributes. Sean O'Malley, on the other hand, is a different breed of fighter. Much like Jon Jones, O'Malley uses his height and length to set the range at which his bouts will take place. By standing at the range from which his strikes land but his opponent's strikes don't, Sean O'Malley ultimately dictates both his opponent's defensive and offensive striking.

By standing outside his opponent's reach, O'Malley causes them to either overextend to land, which draws them into his counter-punches, or they miss their strikes entirely, leaving them completely out of position and exposed to his combinations. Typically, to avoid overextending on a taller foe, fighters resort to using low kicks to briefly disrupt their opponent's stance, leaving them open to combinations over the top. This is effective because the leg is a fighter's longest weapon while their opponent's lead leg is always the closest target. This is also why body jabs are extremely effective against an opponent. It is the longest attack used by the arms, and the body or midsection is the closest upper-body target when a foe leans away.

But against Sean O'Malley, this is difficult to do because his massive height and reach advantage allows him to stand even beyond his opponent's kicking range while still allowing him to hit them. This causes his opponents to kick ahead of themselves. In doing so, they miss their kicks and expose themselves to counter-punches over the top. He disrupts their offensive and defensive striking because his opponents no longer know what a safe range to avoid his strikes from is.

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#3. He has good distance management

Sean O'Malley is similar to Conor McGregor in that both are excellent at distance management. In earlier phases of his career, McGregor often used his lead hand to constantly reach out for his opponent's lead hand, pawing at it. He did so for two reasons. The first was to gauge the distance and determine how far his opponent often stands from him, giving him information on how to follow-up with his punches. The second reason was to trigger a fighter's natural instinct to control the space in front of them. It is human instinct to ward away any object that nears one's face.

In fighters, this is best expressed by their unconscious desire to hand-fight. By tricking his opponents into hand-fighting, McGregor could occupy their hands and even enable him to pull down his foe's lead hand and throw a straight left through the gap. Sean O'Malley follows a similar tactic, duping his foes into hand-fighting for the same purpose. Over time, his opponents give in to their frustrations and lash out every time Sean O'Malley sticks his lead hand that close to their face, suffocating the central space in front of them.

It causes his opponents to lunge forward and swing at his chin to push him back and regain some breathing room. When his opponents do so, Sean O'Malley simply uses his height and length to hop back, leaning away as his foe overextends before he uses his length to intercept them with pull-counters.