Sean O'Malley claims his defensive checks "were damaging" Pedro Munhoz at UFC 276

UFC bantamweight star Sean O’Malley has asserted that his defensive checks were damaging Pedro Munhoz in their fight at UFC 276. The matchup witnessed ‘Sugar’ and Munhoz clash in a closely-contested first round.

Unfortunately, the fight came to an anticlimactic end in round two after O’Malley landed an eye poke on Munhoz that rendered the latter unable to continue. The fight was declared an NC (No Contest).

In an appearance on The Pivot Podcast, O’Malley broke down the Munhoz matchup and suggested that he was winning the fight. ‘Sugar’ stated:

“He [Munhoz] was a top-10 guy. He fought Jose Aldo, Dominick Cruz, Frankie Edgar. Close fights with all of them. He landed zero shots to my head, and then zero shots to my body. Landed a couple leg kicks, but I checked most of those."

"If you kicked my leg and I checked it, it would hurt you really bad. I felt his shins and his feet were landing on a couple of them where like, those kicks were damaging him very bad. So, some of those, on the scorecards, it looked like he kicked me more than he did.”

Two of the three official judges for the bout scored the first round in favor of Munhoz. 'Sugar' alluded to this fact during the UFC 276 post-fight press conference and expressed his disagreement with the judges, as he believes he comfortably beat Munhoz throughout the fight.

The 27-year-old echoed similar sentiments during his appearance on The Pivot Podcast. While it was clear that Pedro Munhoz outstruck O’Malley in regards to landing leg kicks, ‘Sugar’ has repeatedly insinuated that him having checked most of the kicks should be counted as strikes that he landed on Munhoz.

Watch O’Malley discuss the topic at 3:25 in the video below:

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Sean O’Malley willing to compete on short notice after disappointing end to his UFC 276 fight

Presently, Sean O’Malley is the No.13-ranked fighter in the official UFC bantamweight rankings, while Pedro Munhoz stands at No.9. A decisive win over Munhoz would have likely catapulted ’Sugar' into the top-10, but the disappointing end to their matchup seems primed to hurt O’Malley’s momentum. Regardless, O’Malley remains as confident as ever as he continues his quest for UFC bantamweight gold.

In a post-fight interview with ESPN MMA’s Megan Olivi, O’Malley indicated that if any top-tier bantamweights were to pull out of their upcoming fights, he could step in on short notice as a replacement fighter. O’Malley said:

"Potentially. A lot of guys have fights booked right now, maybe someone pulls out. I don't know, it's so hard to say right now. We'll see, you never know."

Watch O'Malley's interview below: