Sean O’Malley called himself an unranked champion

• UFC

The main program of the UFC 269 event, which we will follow this weekend, will be opened with a bantamweight fight between Sean O’Malley and Raulian Paiva, two still unranked bantamweight fighters. On the other hand, the fight of Dominic Cruz and Pedro Munhoz will take place one fight earlier, as the last fight of the introductory program.

This is a fact that surprised many, especially since we know that Cruz is a former champion, a sports legend, and still the greatest fighter in this category in history. Pedro Munhoz is also a big name, a proven longtime Top 10 fighter.

Cruz was in the same position at his last appearance, when he fought Casey Kenney at the UFC 259, in the last fight of the introductory program, but this time O'Malley decided to use it for self-promotion, so he emphasized the same during his visit to MMA Hours Ariel Helwani.

"I have to admit that I smiled a little because I remembered Dominic Cruz and his lessons to young fighters on how to promote themselves and how to do some things." "It's Dominick Cruz, he's a legend, I have no right to disrespect him, but he's in the introductory The UFC agrees with its programs for a reason, you know what I mean? "Sean said, adding: "If they thought Dominick Cruz and Pedro Munhoz could sell more PPV than me, they'd be on the mainstream program.

It's all the business side of the UFC and they know very well what they're doing. That's why they're where they are." Of course, the UFC often used to put more famous fighters on introductory programs to cover that part of the program, but Sean ignored something like that.

Unranked champion

O'Malley recently called himself an unranked champion, explaining that he is more popular than most fighters in the category, adding that he still considers himself undefeated. The defeat he suffered against Marlon Vera due to injury he simply does not accept as such.

He now further explained what he meant by that name mentioned above. "It makes a lot of sense to call me an unranked champion. Especially when you see that I'm on the main program and two Top 10 fighters on the introductory one." "I believe the reason for that is my performance in the arena.

they are just extras. People just want to watch me fight. I move differently from other people and I think that's the point, "he concluded. The fact that Sean is not ranked is actually quite a surprise since, in addition to the aforementioned defeat, he recorded six very clean victories, most often with a very attractive performance.

He may be disliked by you, we’d even say he’s not a favorite for a large percentage of fans, but no one can deny that his fights bring that excitement that makes us watch MMA shows and gets up early in the morning. We will do it again this weekend.