Sean O’Malley has finally posted footage from a long talked about sparring session with Alexandre Pantoja many years ago that the two rivals each claim to have gotten the better of.
The sparring session took place back in 2016 before either fighter was signed to the UFC and O’Malley has had footage of it ever since but has chosen not to release it until now.
Both fighters account of how things transpired that day, with UFC bantamweight champion O’Malley having always claimed that he’d finished Pantoja in the first round with a body kick, while the flyweight champ Pantoja says he beat his rival up and submitted him in the third round.
Well, as the feud has continued to escalate O’Malley teased a little footage of the sparring session a few days ago when he showed himself taking down Pantoja.
“Alright, I don’t like releasing sparring footage,” O’Malley said last week. “But Pantoja can’t keep my name out of his mouth. I didn’t even bring it up initially, Pantoja brought it up. I don’t know why he brought it up, I literally finished him in the first round, with a liver kick. [He] literally called it off, first round. So, for him to talk about sparring? That’s wild.
“I’m not gonna show the finish, because that’s just mean. But, I will show you guys this.”
Sean O'Malley releases footage of his sparring session with Alexandre Pantoja 6 years ago:
"I don't like releasing sparring footage but Pantoja just can't my name out of his mouth…
I don't know why he brought it up, I literally finished him in the first round. With a liver… pic.twitter.com/tRe83P6mXG
— Championship Rounds (@ChampRDS) May 5, 2024
Yesterday O’Malley upped the ante by releasing another clip that confirms his account that he did ‘TKO’ Pantoja (or more accurately called for a time out in the sparring session), due to a liver kick he had received about 12 seconds earlier.
“1st round Tko 2016,” O’Malley wrote. “undefeated. Henry [Cejudo] in his corner he was crying.”
Pantoja has always been adamant that he dominant the sparring session overall though and has claimed that’s why O’Malley has been keeping the video to himself for so many years.
“I asked his friend, ‘Can you talk with your friend to send the video?’ And he said to me, ‘Hey, he’s not gonna send it to you, bro,” Pantoja told The New York Post earlier this month. “You smashed him.’ He’s not going to send it to you.”
And Pantoja has stuck to that claim after reacting to the fact that O’Malley has now posted a snippet from the video.
“I see O’Malley post the video, and that’s so embarassing because he posted like 10 seconds of the sparring video,” Pantoja said on the UFC Unfiltered podcast.
“If you have the video, send the whole video not just your best moment. He wants to create something, let’s create that. He wants to fight with me I can fight with him, because I’m not afraid.”
We know for sure that Pantoja isn’t just making up his claim that there’s more to the footage than O’Malley has shown, because ‘Suga’ himself has gone on record that ‘The Cannibal’ did tap him out in the third round.
“I will say in the third round he choked me,” O’Malley confirmed, before adding that, “I was like 1-0 or 2-0 as a pro, he was coming off ‘The Ultimate Fighter’ making his UFC debut… I was f****** smoking joints the night before.”
O’Malley doesn’t seem to be in a rush to release that footage though, or what transpired in the time between the body kick stoppage and the submission that may confirm or dismiss Pantoja’s claim that he “smashed him”.
Either way, both fighters have gone on to great things since that day, and if they ever do fancy doing it again for real in the Octagon one day then there’s certainly going to be a lot of heat behind it.
