The Sugar Show: How did Sean O’Malley get to the top of the UFC - and can he stay there?

This weekend at UFC 299, reigning bantamweight champion Sean O’Malley will hope to make the first successful defense of the title he took from Aljamain Sterling last August.

‘Sugar’ is set to face off against Marlon Vera in the event’s headline bout, and the fight will also represent a chance for him to gain some revenge over the Ecuadorian, who defeated him back in 2020.

Win, and it’s likely that O’Malley will become one of the UFC’s biggest stars, and could easily be seen as the UFC’s new poster-boy.

So prior to what should be the biggest fight of his career at UFC 299, it’s worth looking at exactly how Sean O’Malley found himself in the position he currently occupies, whether he can remain at the top, and what kind of lessons other up-and-comers can learn from the rise of ‘Sugar’.

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How did Sean O’Malley get to the top of the UFC?

In many ways, it feels like the rise of Sean O’Malley to the top of the UFC’s bantamweight division was a rapid one. However, that wasn’t actually the case.

‘Sugar’ made his octagon debut way back in December 2017, following a knockout win on Dana White’s Contender Series five months earlier. While he still seems like a young fighter, he is now in fact 29 years old, and is set to turn 30 in October.

Essentially, it took O’Malley the best part of six years to become a champion – far longer than the time it took fighters like Jon Jones, Conor McGregor and Israel Adesanya to make it to the top.

So why did it feel like Sean O’Malley shot up the ladder so quickly? Even ignoring the period between 2018 and 2020 that he spent away from the octagon following a USADA suspension, ‘Sugar’ took a very different path to the top than most of his peers.

That’s because – outside of Vera, who handed him the first loss of his career in 2020 – O’Malley largely snacked on overmatched opponents right up until he faced top-fifteen ranked Pedro Munhoz in July 2022.

What makes this interesting is that it was a conscious decision on the behalf of ‘Sugar’, rather than a promotional ploy to build him up.

In a 2021 interview that drew a largely mixed reaction from MMA fans, Sean O’Malley essentially stated that he wasn’t overly interested in fighting ranked opponents while his pay remained the same as it would if he were facing someone lower on the ladder.

It was a brave admission from a fighter competing in the UFC, which tends to reward a willingness to fight “anyone at any time” over and above anything else.

However, in the case of ‘Sugar’, he’d been considered a potential star since the moment he appeared on DWCS, and so it felt like White and company were willing to build him more slowly.

Therefore, O’Malley was allowed to defeat the likes of Thomas Almeida and Kris Moutinho, rather than say, Cory Sandhagen and Ricky Simon on his way up the ladder.

This approach played into O’Malley’s hands two-fold. Firstly, he was able to develop and hone his skills without being overly challenged over a lengthy period of time, and secondly, his flashy wins enabled him to gain a fan following that he may not have earned had he been fighting in tougher bouts.

It’s the kind of approach that is regularly used in the world of boxing, and in this instance, it clearly worked in the UFC, too.

After beating all of his foes outside of Vera, Sean O’Malley was granted a step up in 2022 in the form of a clash with former titleholder Petr Yan, and after edging him in a controversial decision, a title shot was his and the rest is history.

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Is Sean O’Malley as good as he claims or is he smoke and mirrors?

Most of the time, when a new UFC champion attempts to defend their title for the first time, the big question is whether they are a flash-in-the-pan, or whether they’re likely to go onto a lengthy reign.

For Sean O’Malley, this question is almost multiplied tenfold.

Usually, any fighter who claims a title in the UFC has been in the octagon with multiple top-ranked foes, but in the case of ‘Sugar’, things are a little different.

Essentially, O’Malley has fought just four top-ranked foes; Marlon Vera, Pedro Munhoz, Petr Yan and Aljamain Sterling.

His bout with Munhoz, which was called off after an accidental eye poke, can largely be discounted. Outside of that, ‘Sugar’ lost to Vera (but only after suffering an injury) and edged Yan in a painfully tight decision that could’ve gone the other way.

Essentially, then, his only true win against an elite foe came when he knocked out Sterling last August. Only a fool would deny how great his performance in that fight was, but it’s still hard to deny that at the top level, he remains slightly untested.

The nature of his win over ‘The Funk Master’ – a brutal second round knockout – suggests that O’Malley is definitely for real and that his unorthodox striking attack can be successful against anyone at 135 pounds.

However, the number of questions that surround the rest of his game, including his durability, cardio and ground skills, are still pretty lengthy.

Thankfully, we should find out some more answers on this when he rematches Vera this weekend. ‘Chito’ is blessed with a granite jaw, has finishing skills in all areas, and already holds that win over ‘Sugar’.

If O’Malley can avenge his loss and make it look easy, then it’s likely that the sky will be the limit for him in terms of his star potential.

Uniquely, though, if he loses, he probably won’t be treated quite like any other defeated UFC champion. Rather than being seen as a legitimate titleholder who couldn’t hang onto his crown, many fans will be content to label ‘Sugar’ as a fraud and a product of Dana White’s promotional skills.

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Who really created the Sugar Show?

The question of who is truly responsible for the rise of Sean O’Malley is a fair one. On one hand, ‘Sugar’ has a tremendous amount of charisma. With his wildly colored hair, he sports a unique look in comparison to his peers.

And in the octagon, his flashy striking style also stands out, albeit not any more so than the likes of Yair Rodriguez or Israel Adesanya.

Add in his willingness to promote himself and talk frankly about his career, and it’s easy to argue that like Conor McGregor, O’Malley’s star is largely a self-made one.

On the other hand, the idea that the UFC and Dana White protected their golden goose during his rise to the top is also hard to shake off.

It’s arguable that no other UFC champion was allowed to breeze past overmatched opponents en route to a title shot quite like O’Malley did, particularly after he fell to Marlon Vera in their first fight.

Given the unique approach from the UFC, which usually prides itself in putting together the best possible fights – basically the opposite to the boxing-style approach given to Sean O’Malley – the promotion could probably take equal credit for his standing now.

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Can other fighters learn from the rise of Sean O’Malley?

The answer to the question of whether younger fighters can learn from the rise of Sean O’Malley is a simple one: Yes.

While simply making it to the UFC in the first place is often the ultimate – no pun intended – goal for younger fighters, the real money is only made once a fighter reaches the top of the mountain.

Given the arduous nature of the road to the top of the promotion, which usually means fighting multiple high-level talents along the way, it’s hardly a surprise that very few actually make it.

In that sense, the unique rise of ‘Sugar’ could provide a new blueprint for prospects. Rather than jump straight into a bout with the first highly-ranked foe offered, would it not be smarter for them to pick and choose their opponents?

Unfortunately, it may not be that easy for a youngster to follow the same path as Sean O’Malley. It’s probably easy to be more picky about who you fight when you’ve been identified as a future superstar even prior to your octagon debut, as ‘Sugar’ was – particularly when the promotion doesn’t seem to mind about a drugs ban.

For a less charismatic fighter, though, any attempt to hand-pick foes is very likely to fail miserably, as White has been known to release fighters from their UFC contracts for an unwillingness to fight certain opponents at certain times.

In that sense, it’s difficult to compare Sean O’Malley with anyone else, even McGregor, and it’s also difficult to see his unique rise as any kind of blueprint for a younger talent.

Essentially, then, fans and observers alike are better off sitting back and seeing how his rematch with Vera goes this weekend.

If he does win, though, and if the show draws well in the process, then perhaps it’ll be worth everyone in MMA – including the UFC’s power-brokers – reconsider their approach to matchmaking in the future.