Bantamweight star Sean O’Malley’s next fight will be against Thomas Almeida at UFC 260 on March 27th.
O’Malley was riding a wave of momentum heading into his last fight against Chico Vera, wielding a perfect 12-0 record that included back-to-back finishes via strikes against Jose Alberto Quinonez and Eddie Wineland early last year.
However, like Conor McGregor at UFC 257 recently, O’Malley fell victim to calf kicks that badly affected his mobility and led to Vera TKO’ing him late in he first round.
So, now we’ll get to see for the first time how the 26-year-old bounces back after a loss as he goes up against Almeida, who is in dire need of a win after having four of his last five fights.
Almeida should serve as a cautionary tale for O’Malley as he had amassed an impressive 21-0 record, including four wins in the UFC, before a first round KO loss to Cody Garbrandt in 2016 that has paved the way for further losses against the likes of Jimmie Rivera, Rob Font and most recently Jonathan Martinez in the years that followed.
O’Malley vs. Almeida joins a UFC 260 card that’s set to be headlined by a heavyweight title rematch between Stipe Miocic and Francis Ngannou, while Brian Ortega challenges featherweight champion Alexander Volkanovski in the co-main event and Tyron Woodley fights Vicente Luque elsewhere on the pay-per-view main card.
