By spectacularly knocking out Aljamain Sterling in the second round, new UFC lightweight champion Sean O’Malley confirmed his star status, UFC president, Dana White believes.
“There’s no Dana White privilege in this company – O’Malley got his title shot because he earned it,” the organization’s leader said at a press conference following the UFC 292 event in Boston. “You don’t become No. 2 in the world without deserving it. You don’t get a title fight without deserving it.”
“When you think about this fight, you ask yourself, ‘How did Shawn beat this guy? How did he stop his takedowns?’ Styles makes fights where things happen that you don’t always expect. Shawn knocked him out, he caught him and stopped him. It was amazing.”
“Bruce Springsteen just played here and sold five million dollars worth of tickets and our ticket revenue was seven million dollars. We broke the arena record, and it’s the biggest lightweight championship fight in terms of pay-per-view sales, another record. O’Malley won’t be a star, he’s already a big star!”
White also responded to a question about whether he would be willing to go along with Sean O’Malley and arrange for him to fight Marlon Vera, who defeated Pedro Munoz by unanimous decision in a numbered event in December.
“I’ll answer like I always do – we don’t schedule fights right after fights, so we’ll see.”
Recall that in the confrontation with Marlon Vera, Sean O’Malley suffered his only defeat in his professional career, three years ago losing to the Ecuadorian by technical knockout in the first round.
Source: https://fighttime.ru/news/item/32415-reaktsiya-prezidenta-ufc-na-pobedu-shona-o-melli.html?rand=19907
