UFC star and former bantamweight champion Sean O’Malley admits he got lost trying to be like MMA icon Conor McGregor.
The former champion had a good run during his reign as champ, and he credits it to his admiration of former two-weight champion McGregor. O’Malley agreed that he liked the comparison with McGregor and tried as much as possible to be like the fighter in terms of success.
“One hundred percent (I viewed McGregor as a role model),” O’Malley said on “Between Rounds.” “The way he carried himself into fights, the confidence to say what he thought was going to happen – ‘I’m going to knock this dude out in Round 2.’ I got a lot out of that. I was like, ‘OK, I can be confident like that.’ I feel like I got lost, almost, in a sense, where I wanted to be like Conor too much instead of being like myself.”
However, O’Malley has come to terms with the fact that he would have to do a lot more and work harder toward achieving those heights. Since his loss to Merab Dvalishvili, O’Malley has been on the way to redeeming himself, but that journey seems to be proving harder than he thought.
“That was my second title defense, and I was like, ‘I want this to be big,'” O’Malley said. “I didn’t feel like it was big. I didn’t feel like Merab was a big name. I had to force it. It was at The Sphere. I felt like I had to create something and I didn’t like how that made me feel, in a sense, because I didn’t hate Merab.
“I would have loved to knock him out. … I feel like I made that one too personal, and I didn’t like that – but that was kind of the only time I really forced anything. The ‘Chito’ beef I felt was real. I didn’t like that. That was a real one, but the Merab one I feel like I forced a little bit.”
After his loss, “Suga” was unable to capture the belt in a rematch at UFC 316. The fighter has since undergone surgery and has taken time off to reflect on his career.
“I do think there’s an entertainment aspect that UFC people need to kinda do to become a superstar,” O’Malley said. “You gotta be yourself, and then you can add on to that a little bit. Yeah, finding that balance. There’s not someone there to teach you. There’s not a book.”
