Sean O’Malley admits he fell into the trap of trying to emulate Conor McGregor.
The former UFC bantamweight champion O’Malley (18-3 MMA, 10-3 UFC) revealed during a recent appearance on Between Rounds that while he drew major inspiration from McGregor’s success both inside and outside the Octagon, he ultimately lost a bit of his own identity by trying too hard to mimic “The Notorious.”
"One hundred percent,” O’Malley responded when asked if he viewed McGregor as a role model. "The way he carried himself into fights, the confidence to say what he thought was going to happen – 'I'm going to knock this dude out in Round 2.' I got a lot out of that. I was like, 'OK, I can be confident like that.' I feel like I got lost, almost, in a sense, where I wanted to be like Conor too much instead of being like myself."
O’Malley carried star power from the moment he entered the UFC in 2017. He fulfilled his long-hyped potential by capturing the bantamweight title in 2023, but that reign came to an abrupt end when he lost the belt to Merab Dvalishvili at UFC 306 last September.
"That was my second title defense, and I was like, 'I want this to be big,'" O'Malley said. "I didn't feel like it was big. I didn't feel like Merab was a big name. I had to force it. It was at The Sphere. I felt like I had to create something and I didn't like how that made me feel, in a sense, because I didn't hate Merab. I would have loved to knock him out. ... I feel like I made that one too personal, and I didn't like that – but that kind of the only time I really forced anything. The 'Chito' beef I felt was real. I didn't like that. That was a real one, but the Merab one I feel like I forced a little bit.
"I do think there's an entertainment aspect that UFC people need to kinda do to become a superstar," O'Malley said. "You gotta be yourself, and then you can add on to that a little bit. Yeah, finding that balance. There's not someone there to teach you. There's not a book."
