Sean O'Malley revealed his new UFC 264 opponent in a Twitch stream

Sean O’Malley has revealed his new UFC 264 opponent in a Twitch stream. O’Malley asserted that he’ll be facing a fighter by the name of Kris Moutinho.

Additionally, Ariel Helwani and ESPN MMA’s Marc Raimondi have put forth a few tweets regarding O’Malley and his new UFC 264 opponent.

Fans can check out the tweets below:

Sean O’Malley’s new UFC 264 opponent is Kris Moutinho, who’ll be making his UFC debut. He’s 9-4. Ricky Simon was considered, I’m told, but he couldn’t make 135 on such short notice. O’Malley first broke the news on his Twitch stream.

— Ariel Helwani (@arielhelwani) June 30, 2021

He never accepted a 135 fight. He said he could make 145 but O’Malley wanted 135. UFC wanted 135, too.

— Ariel Helwani (@arielhelwani) June 30, 2021

Quote from @RickySimonUFC on the O’Malley fight:“I train with Smolka, so when he had to pull out I threw my name in the hat right away. I knew I could make 145 or even a catch weight and that’s what we offered.” He said he felt comfortable getting as low as 140 at the moment.

— Ariel Helwani (@arielhelwani) June 30, 2021

Unfortunately for Simon, seemed like UFC and O’Malley wanted 135.

— Ariel Helwani (@arielhelwani) June 30, 2021

Moutinho is a veteran of CFFC. He’s an action fighter, per his manager Tyson Chartier — “an aggressive striker with a solid wrestling base.”

— Marc Raimondi (@marc_raimondi) June 30, 2021

Widely regarded as one of the brightest prospects in the sport of MMA today, ‘Suga’ Sean O’Malley was scheduled to face Louis Smolka in a bantamweight bout at UFC 264 on July 10th, 2021. However, Smolka was coerced to withdraw from the fight, reportedly due to a staph infection.

This, in turn, left O’Malley without an opponent for the all-important UFC 264 fight card. UFC 264 is expected to be one of, if not the, biggest combat sports events of the 2021 calendar year. The event is set to be headlined by the highly anticipated trilogy matchup between MMA megastar Conor McGregor and Dustin Poirier.

The rest of the UFC 264 fight card, too, features several top-tier UFC competitors, with names such as Stephen ‘Wonderboy’ Thompson, Carlos Condit and others scheduled to compete in exciting stylistic matchups.

Needless to say, upon learning of Louis Smolka’s withdrawal from UFC 264, many in the MMA community expected the UFC to rope in a short-notice replacement opponent for Sean O’Malley. As noted, O’Malley is one of the brightest prospects in the sport today and is a fan-favorite courtesy of his KO power and innovative fighting style.

On that note, the UFC has seemingly delivered, as Sean O’Malley will indeed be competing at UFC 264 after all. The bantamweight fighter who’s been brought in as the short-notice replacement to fight O’Malley is Kris Moutinho.

Sean O’Malley aims to continue his winning ways by defeating Kris Moutinho at UFC 264

Sean O'Malley (right) possesses outstanding striking skills

The 28-year-old Kris Moutinho holds a professional MMA record of nine wins and four losses. Moutinho is currently on a two-fight win streak. Moutinho’s most recent fight was a third-round submission win over Andrew Salas at the Cage Fury Fighting Championships 96 (May 2021).

Meanwhile, Sean O’Malley holds a professional MMA record of 13 wins and 1 loss. O’Malley recently returned to the win column this year after suffering the first loss of his career last year. O’Malley’s most recent fight was a third-round KO win over Thomas Almeida at UFC 260 (March 2021).

The sole loss of Sean O’Malley’s professional MMA career came against Marlon ‘Chito’ Vera at UFC 252 (August 2020). O’Malley suffered a lower leg injury during the fight and was swarmed by Vera, who then defeated him via first-round TKO.

Regardless, the UFC 260 Almeida victory, coupled with another impressive win at UFC 264, would most definitely help O’Malley move forward in his quest to capture the UFC bantamweight title.