Sean O’Malley took a mostly straightforward path to the top and he’s confused by the direction Paddy Pimblett is heading in.
Though O’Malley hit a couple of road bumps since being signed from the Contender Series in 2017, his popularity consistently grew with every outing culminating in a knockout of Aljamain Sterling at UFC 292 this past August that won him the bantamweight championship.
Pimblett has also seen his popularity explode since coming over from England’s Cage Warriors promotion and, like O’Malley, he’s earned his fair share of supporters and detractors despite winning his first four UFC fights. He next fights fan-favorite lightweight Tony Ferguson at UFC 296 on Dec. 16, a matchup that has drawn a wide range of opinions.
O’Malley thinks that Pimblett being paired up with a struggling veteran doesn’t have too many benefits for the brash Scouser.
“Initial reaction, I’m like, ‘Goddamn, that’s a lose-lose for Paddy,’” O’Malley said in a YouTube video. “You go out there and beat Tony—who’s really good, but on a six-fight losing streak—so if you beat him, you’re not going to get credit for beating f****** Tony Ferguson. You’re going to get credit for beating a guy that’s like, you should beat him, but it’s a dangerous fight. It’s not that easy of a fight.
“It’s going to be a tough fight. Tony could 100 hundred percent win this fight. Now you’re coming off a loss to a guy—I mean, at least it’s still T-Ferg, but it’s like, is it T-Ferg?”
A former interim UFC lightweight champion, the 39-year-old Ferguson is mired in the most brutal stretch of his career with six straight losses since June 2019. These losses have come in multiple discouraging ways, including brutal knockouts, surprising submissions, and lopsided decisions.
Pimblett will be coming off of a year-long layoff when he steps into the octagon at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, with his most recent win being a controversial unanimous decision over Jared Gordon. He opened as a large -340 favorite, though several former fighters are giving Ferguson a chance to pull off an upset, including Chael Sonnen and Daniel Cormier.
