It was a big weekend in combat sports.
In case you missed it, just after 1 a.m. ET on Sunday in Boston, a new star was born.
His name is Sean O’Malley.
Or “Suga Sean,” if you prefer.
And he’s as close to a second coming of Conor McGregor – melding legit MMA prowess with over-the-top personality – as there’s been since the Irishman went full-on octagonal supernova in Las Vegas, just 13 days before Christmas in 2015.
It’s been a pretty good run for Dana White and Co. when it comes to those transcendent stars, with McGregor and Ronda Rousey having gone a long way toward putting the UFC on the mainstream sports map in the century’s second decade.
Rousey was the main attraction in the first legit post-1999 pay-per-view with a female headliner – sorry, but the Laila Ali-Jacqui Frazier-Lyde show in 2001 was more cash grab than competition – and, lest anyone forget, McGregor both topped nine PPV events on the MMA side and was the ideal foil for Floyd Mayweather Jr. on the way to their extravaganza that still ranks second all-time among boxing events.
Only Mayweather’s date with Manny Pacquiao generated more buys than the 4.3 million drawn by him and the “Notorious” one, and it’s no stretch to suggest that the 10-round summertime circus in 2017 was the catalyst for the era that’s since yielded Jake Paul and myriad other crossovers alongside him.
Don’t believe it? Ask Randy Gordon.
“While there were others like Ali-Antonio Inoki,” the former Ring Magazine editor and current Sirius XM host said, “the Mayweather-McGregor fight absolutely opened the floodgates for the circus shows which have followed. The feeling being ‘If they could do it, why can’t I?”
Paul has since chopped down four of White’s former promotional properties in the ring, and the UFC axed its reigning heavyweight champion, Francis Ngannou, when the Cameroonian-born Frenchman followed through on a crossover wish of his own to engage Tyson Fury in a bout set for October.
So might O’Malley be next?
The 28-year-old is based in Phoenix, turned pro in the cage in 2015 and actually had a sanctioned boxing match a year later, stopping David Courtney in Round 1 of a scheduled four-rounder at lightweight.
He stands a rangy 5-foot-11, is still at 135 pounds – considered bantamweight in the UFC – seven years later and possessed enough pop to render champ Aljamain Sterling senseless enough with a single right hand to yield a second-round TKO victory and a championship transition at the TD Garden.
A side-by-side replay with McGregor’s star-making KO of Jose Aldo was remarkably similar, with both men subtly pulling backward to elude single punches before coming forward with precise counter shots that dumped their foes face-first to the floor and put them decisively over.
Aldo was widely considered the promotion’s all-time best at 145 pounds, while Sterling was building a similar case for permanent historical recognition at 135. But when matched against foes with just the right amount of stand-up savvy to go along with their other jiu-jitsu chops, it was no contest.
Whaddya know? The ring was on O’Malley’s mind in the aftermath.
He said at a post-fight presser that he “wouldn’t mind” knocking out Gervonta Davis, the unbeaten 135-pounder most recently seen stopping Ryan Garcia in the biggest fight of 2023’s initial half.
“UFC is down to get behind stuff like that if it’s big enough,” he said. “With that performance, we’re getting close. … I want to have crazy, massive fights. That sh!t gets me excited. I love that stuff. There’s no stars in the bantamweight division. Gervonta, you can consider him almost a star, and that’s what gets me excited. Me vs. Gervonta would be f—— massive.”
Given the year he’s had, maybe it’s no surprise Garcia has perked up, too.
The social media giant suffered his first loss to Davis in April as has been publicly scrapping with promoter Oscar De La Hoya ever since, and he tossed in his two cents with a tweet warning O’Malley to not become the latest non-boxer to find himself in over his head in the ring.
“Suga Sean you are good and all,” Garcia wrote. “But stop talking about this I’m going to box stuff. You’ll just get knocked out.”
Let’s face it. He’s probably right. Davis is a beast.
And he’s beaten enough full-fledged boxers to make the idea of a relative novice competing with him seem pretty ridiculous, especially considering O’Malley’s lone advantage is height.
But if nothing at all else, the kid’s got moxie.
His reply to Garcia – “Like you did or different?” – was delivered with the sort of timing and snark emblematic of a Twitter champion, and it’s precisely the sort of cattiness that’d prompt more than a few people to ratchet up the interest to check it out at $79.99 a pop.
And these days, that’s as much the mark of a champion as anything else.
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This week’s title-fight schedule:
IBF/WBA/WBO heavyweight titles – Wroclaw, Poland
Oleksandr Usyk (champion/No. 1 Ring) vs. Daniel Dubois (No. 8 WBO/Unranked Ring)
Usyk (20-0, 13 KO): Second title defenses; Five KOs in eight fights beyond 200 pounds (8-0, 5 KO)
Dubois (19-1, 18 KO): First title fight; Eight wins in nine scheduled 12-round fights (8-1, 8 KO)
Fitzbitz says: Dubois is a big, strong, power-hitting Brit who’ll have significant size advantages against Usyk. But it’s nothing new for the champ and it shouldn’t change typical results. Usyk in 9 (95/5)
WBO mini-flyweight title – San Juan, Puerto Rico
Oscar Collazo (champion/No. 3 Ring) vs. Garen Diagan (No. 9 WBO/Unranked Ring)
Collazo (7-0, 5 KO): First title defense; Two KOs in three scheduled 12-round fights (3-0, 2 KO)
Diagan (10-3, 5 KO): First title fight; Fighting in fifth country (Philippines, Thailand, South Africa, Vietnam)
Fitzbitz says: Collazo seems like one of the bright young stars in the lighter weight classes and Diagan seems little more than a speed bump on the way to bigger things. Won’t be an issue. Collazo in 6 (99/1)
Last week’s picks: None
2023 picks record: 27-11 (71.1 percent)
Overall picks record: 1,277-419 (75.3 percent)
NOTE: Fights previewed are only those involving a sanctioning body’s full-fledged title-holder – no interim, diamond, silver, etc. Fights for WBA “world championships” are only included if no “super champion” exists in the weight class.
Lyle Fitzsimmons has covered professional boxing since 1995 and written a weekly column for Boxing Scene since 2008. He is a full voting member of the Boxing Writers Association of America. Reach him at fitzbitz@msn.com or follow him on Twitter – @fitzbitz.