At the UFC 252 pay-per-view, Sean O'Malley suffered a crushing loss to Marlon Vera, when the Ecuadorian finished 'Sugar' via first-round TKO. Midway through the fight, O'Malley suffered an issue in his ankle which restricted his movement significantly seemingly led to the conclusion of the fight.
During a recent edition of The Timbo and Sugar Show podcast, Sean O'Malley revealed that there is no serious damage to his ankle and claimed that he just rolled it about seven times. 'Sugar' further said that the problem was mostly caused due to him loosening up the wraps on his foot prior to the fight. (H/T: MMA Junkie)
“Warming up in the back, everything was perfect. I’m in (expletive) good shape. I’m breaking this mother(expletive) 100 percent in my mind. I get back there, doing our warm-up, everything is going perfect. About five minutes before we’re set to walk I’m like, ‘Do you think you could (expletive) loosen up my ankle brace? It’s (expletive) tight.’ So he’s sitting back loosening up my ankle braces because they were tight. That’s about it."- Sean O’Malley said on “The Timbo and Sugar Show” podcast.
Sean O'Malley further stated that in the back of his mind, he knew that Marlon Vera was easy and too slow for him. The 25-year-old added that he didn't think 'Chito' was going to take him down.
“Walked out, everything felt good, got in there. I was in front of him, and I’m like, in my mind, I’m like, ‘This is easy. He’s slow. He can’t hit me.’ You can’t hit me, and you can’t take me down. I didn’t think he was going to be able to take me down because he was so slow. … God, just standing there knowing I had one leg and like, ‘He still s****.'”- added Sean O'Malley.
When is Sean O'Malley expected to return?
Sean O'Malley could very well be back in Octagon action within a very short period of time. 'Sugar' has been fighting pretty frequently in the UFC ever since his return, with him already having fought at UFC 248, UFC 250, and UFC 252.