Sean O’Malley expected his walk-off knockout of Aiemann Zahabi to earn him a bonus.
Former bantamweight champion O’Malley (20-3 MMA, 12-3 UFC) made good on his prediction by taking out Zahabi (14-3 MMA, 8-3 UFC) in Round 2 on Sunday at the White House in Washington. However, it was Ciryl Gane and Justin Gaethje who won the Performance of the Night bonuses for scoring finishes in their fights, with Gaethje also winning Fight of the Night.
“Then we did a f*cking pointless press conference where I didn’t get a bonus, and it was f*cking ridiculous,” O’Malley told MMA Guru. “I was just telling Tim, like these wins feel good. Like it feels good, but if I would have lost, those are just so much worse than wins. It’s like, why even do this sh*t?”
O’Malley got to be part of another historic event. After losing his bantamweight title to Merab Dvalishvili in the UFC 306 headliner at the Sphere, he was able to make good at the White House with a signature performance.
“It felt like I got to redeem myself from the Sphere fight,” O’Malley said. “That Sphere fight, very time it gets brought up, ‘Oh, you fought at the Sphere.’ I’m like, ‘Yeah, well kind of.’ It’s just like now I feel like I got to redeem myself, and it felt good.”
This article originally appeared on MMA Junkie: UFC Freedom 250 winner calls bonus snub ‘f*cking ridiculous’
