- Alexandre Pantoja wants Sean Strickland to stop talking about the flyweight division
- “The Cannibal” revealed that he beat Sean O’Malley during their sparring session in the past
Alexandre Pantoja hit out at Sean Strickland for insulting the flyweights and revealed that he beat Sean O’Malley in sparring.
Sean needs to shut up
Speaking to Shak MMA, “The Cannibal” fired back at Strickland over the former middleweight champion’s negative comment about the flyweight division back in January. Strickland called UFC flyweights “little cats” and he didn’t want to see them fight because the UFC is for “lions.”
In his response, Pantoja pointed out that flyweights also put in the work and effort to be the best fighters they could possibly be. More importantly, “The Cannibal” demands “Tarzan” to just zip his mouth if he can’t respect the flyweights.
“Every flyweight in the world before the UFC worked so hard… I’m very mad when Strickland said that for women and flyweight guys. Shut your mouth. Respect my job,” Pantoja said. “I put food on my table with that. You crazy? Every flyweight worked so hard for that, and that’s why everyone respects each other in the flyweight [division].”
“It’s hard when you see someone say bad things about us because we work hard. That’s a very hard division. We need to be training 100 percent time. It’s not just about one punch here. You need to be good in grappling, good cardio, good striking, good every time in every place. It’s a hard division in the UFC,” he pointed out.
O’Malley is hiding the proof of how Pantoja beat him in sparring
In another interview with New York Post, Pantoja shared his honest take on O’Malley. Pantoja has previously expressed his desire to move up to bantamweight and dethrone “Suga.”
O’Malley then replied and revealed that he already knocked “The Cannibal” out in sparring back then. Pantoja now shared his side of the story and claimed that he “smashed” O’Malley at the time. In fact, O’Malley’s friend has the video of it but the bantamweight champ chose to keep it.
“It’s crazy because right now, the champion for the bantamweight is Sean O’Malley, and I have some history with him. Before I start talking about O’Malley, he talked first about me. And I don’t understand how he start talking because I’m sparring with him like six years ago for my first UFC fight, and he say some bad things about that,” Pantoja said.
“That’s crazy because he recorded the sparring and at the end of the training I say, ‘Hey, send to me to the video, and then I can see your training and everything.’ He never passed the training for me. I asked, ‘Can you talk with your friend so he send them the video?’ And he say to me, ‘He not gonna send to you, bro. You smashed him. He’s not gonna send to you.’ I say, ‘Okay, that’s okay. Doesn’t matter,'” he continued.
“He say he beats me… They’re weird, because the first time I’ve seen him, he’s a nice guy, very talented, very humble kid. And now you see O’Malley, all the stuff he do, different style. He can do that. That’s okay. He make his money. He’s happy,” he added.
Alexandre Pantoja describes the time he sparred Sean O’Malley 6 years ago and “smashed” him:
“I have some history with [O’Malley]… I [sparred] with him like 6 years ago for my first UFC fight, and he said some bad things about that.
That’s crazy because he recorded the… pic.twitter.com/QSM9w7cKQg
— Championship Rounds (@ChampRDS) April 30, 2024
On the other hand, O’Malley insisted that Pantoja was the one who got mauled that day.
“Twas a first round TKO,” O’Malley wrote in response to Pantoja.
Pantoja is set to defend his flyweight belt against Steve Erceg at UFC 301. He will aim to retain his title for the second time since dethroning Brandon Moreno at UFC 290.
