“I would say I wasn’t as emotional as I could have been,” the American said in an interview with Teddy Atlas. “A lot of people, when they win a title, act like Sean Strickland this weekend, like, ‘I never thought I’d be here in my life.’ It was different for me.”
“I knew for sure, this crazy thought had been sitting in my head for a long time – I’m 100 percent going to be a champion. When I was 16-17 years old and I hadn’t even fought a single MMA fight yet, I was telling everyone around me that I was going to be a world champion.”
Recall that Sean O’Malley plans to make a title defense against Ecuadorian Marlon Vera before the end of the year, while the question of the next opponent of Sean Strickland is still in limbo – he can give a rematch to Israel Adesanya, whom he defeated by unanimous decision, or meet with one of the top fighters in the division.