"Suga" Sean O'Malley Dominates Chito Vera In His First Title Defense
"Suga" Sean O'Malley finally got redemption over Marlon "Chito" Vera tonight at UFC 299, avenging the one loss in his UFC career on the biggest stage possible. He didn't get the walk-off knockout I'm sure he wanted coming into the evening, but Suga put on one hell of a championship performance in his first five-round fight and title defense. It was easily the best and most complete showing of his career - and I'm sure it was even sweeter considering it was against his biggest rival.
Suga opened the fight with some beautiful body work on the always-slow-to-start Chito Vera, and in the second, he slid in a knee that would probably knock most of the division out....
How Chito ate that is fucking beyond me. He's a tough motherfucker.
It was more of the same through the third round, where O'Malley really started to get comfortable and pick Chito apart. He was ripping up the body, working the jab very well, switching stances perfectly, and really showing what he is made of. Chito had a decent start to Round 4, where he tried to make the fight a little dirty and get Sean to bite on his combinations, but it didn't take long for the champ to adjust and get control of the fight back.
O'Malley got the unanimous decision victory and called out Featherweight Champ Ilia Topuria for another Champ vs Champ superfight afterwards, which I don't know how to feel about....
On one hand, that fight is intriguing as FUCK and I'd love to see it. On the other hand, I'm getting a little tired of champs jumping divisions and chasing Champ-Champ status. Defend your titles. Develop a legacy in your weight class fight.
Plus, few contenders are as deserving of a title shot as Merab - who O'Malley said he'd gladly knock out if the UFC wanted him to.
Merab's a scary fighter, though - if you don't knock him out early, you're fucked. At least you know Topuria would want to stand-and-trade for five straight rounds and you wouldn't risk getting grapplefucked against him.
We're about to go LIVE to break down this fight and the entire card on the Spinnin Backfist MMA Show, so tune in if you're staying up!
