Cody Garbrandt isn’t putting down Sean O’Malley’s big UFC title win, but he does believe there are some holes in “Sugar’s” game.
At UFC 292 on August 19, O’Malley challenged Aljamain Sterling for the bantamweight championship. The first round saw Sterling bounce around and throw out kicks, but a takedown wasn’t there for Aljo. This was surprising to many, as the “Funk Master’s” bread and butter has been his grappling. Sterling did eventually attempt a takedown that was thwarted by O’Malley.
Sterling ended up being stopped in the second round, as O’Malley’s counter punching earned him the TKO win just 51 seconds into the second stanza. This is the beginning of O’Malley’s first UFC title reign.
Sean O'Malley was hooping during the fight 🏀 #UFC292 pic.twitter.com/IPxnPKVYAR
— ESPN MMA (@espnmma) August 17, 2023
Cody Garbrandt On Sean O’Malley’s Weaknesses
Former UFC Bantamweight Champion Cody Garbrandt weighed in on the big win for Sean O’Malley during his appearance on Michael Bisping’s “Believe You Me” podcast. He explained what Aljamain Sterling did wrong. “No Love” also said he’s happy for O’Malley, but thinks he has some clear holes in his game that other bantamweights can exploit.
“‘Sugar’ Sean’s a counter striker, and he lunged in, left himself open, and you can’t do that on a good counter striker,” Garbrandt said. “He knows what Aljamain’s game plan was, get to the ground and wrestle him, and ‘Sugar’ Sean was like, ‘I’m literally going to fight tooth and nail to not get taken down,’ and Aljamain made a costly mistake that made him lose the title. I’m happy for ‘Sugar’ Sean, I think it’s great. He’s the champion of our division. I think he has a lot of holes and weaknesses that are gonna be exposed a lot, but right now, let him enjoy the championship and what he was able to do on Saturday night.”
