UFC 299: Sean O'Malley Is a Rising Star, but He Isn't Conor McGregor Yet

Sean O'Malley put forth one of the best performances of his career in the main event of Saturday's UFC 299 card in Miami, dominating Marlon "Chito" Vera for five rounds to a unanimous decision victory.

O'Malley won the bantamweight belt in the main event of UFC 292 last August in Boston when he scored a second-round stoppage over Aljamain Sterling – widely considered one of the best fighters in the division's history. The rocket ship and UFC's hype machine are in full effect, and there's no doubting the Suga Show is here to stay.

But let's be real for a second. Despite the hype and the mentions during the PPV broadcast, he isn't Conor McGregor and hasn't reached that level of stardom just yet.

It was an important fight for O'Malley. Not because of the old "you're not a true champion until you defend the belt" adage, which is utter nonsense, but because Vera was the man behind the only loss of the champion's career, having beaten him in the first round back in 2020.

O'Malley could not have been more emphatic in proving that the 2020 loss was a fluke.

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He was dominant from the opening round, keeping Vera at a distance with jabs and teeps, and landing vicious punches behind those strikes.

In Round 2, he took things up a notch, blasting his challenger with a knee to the chin that probably would have stopped most lightweights and even some welterweights in their tracks.

From there, the trend continued. The champion landed at will through rounds three, four, and five. Vera showed signs of life in the last two rounds, but by the time the fifth was over, there was no mystery whatsoever as to who would get the judges' nod.

Two cage-side judges scored the fight 50-45 for the champion, and the third had him winning by an even wider 50-44 margin. It was one of the most lopsided championship fights we've seen in the past couple of years, and one that commentators Joe Rogan and Jon Anik both referred to as "a masterclass."

"Everything is just beautiful tonight from the champion," a dazzled Rogan said mid-way through the fight.

When the main event was over, Rogan joined O'Malley in the Octagon for a post-fight interview. The champ's nose was bleeding, but compared to his challenger, who was bruised and swollen, he looked fresh.

"I felt something in his face break," O'Malley told Rogan, referencing the second-round knee he planted on Vera's chin. "Chito's as tough as they get. That one feels good, getting that one back."

The big point against O'Malley's lopsided win—and the first reason the comparisons to McGregor are premature—is that Vera hardly deserved a title shot to begin with.

While there is no question the Ecuadorian is one of the best fighters in the bantamweight division, he entered the cage with a 1-1 record in his last two fights, having first lost a wide decision to Cory Sandhagen, and later rebounded with a close decision win over Pedro Munhoz.

Were it not for his previous win over O'Malley—and his own popularity—Vera never would have gotten a title shot, and the opportunity would have surely gone to Georgia's Merab Dvalishvili, who is unbeaten in 10 straight fights.

O'Malley also took some punishment in his lopsided win, most notably a vicious punch to the body in the waning moments of round five that looked like it had him in a very bad spot.

"That was a nice shot," he conceded in his post-fight interview.

These things didn't happen to McGregor in his prime. He dominated people. And yet the comparisons between them will continue, in large part because O'Malley is actively trying to follow in the Irishman's footsteps.

Toward the end of his post-fight interview, the bantamweight champion was asked who he wanted to fight next. While he reluctantly agreed to "knock Merab out" if that's what the UFC and its fans wanted, he made his first choice quite clear: an opportunity to become a two-division champion by fighting new featherweight champion Ilia Topuria.

"He's a scary f--king dude," he said of the champ one division up.

If O'Malley gets that opportunity it will be a travesty—solely because Dvalishvili deserves a title shot absolutely, much like Belal Muhammad at welterweight. Still, the UFC may grant O'Malley the opportunity, and it's also possible he will win the fight to become a two-division champ.

If that were to happen, the comparisons to McGregor would become much more justifiable, but for the moment, they are senseless.

O'Malley inadvertently laid out the reason why those comparisons don't make sense in a pre-fight interview with B/R.

"I was kind of envisioning myself as being a Conor. Being a guy that, you know, goes above and beyond and is massive," he told our writer Lyle Fitzsimmons. "I want to be able to walk down the street and ask some random person 'Do you know who Sean O'Malley is?' That's kind of been the goal."

Speaking at the UFC 299 post-fight press conference, UFC CEO Dana White called O'Malley the biggest star in the history of the promotion's bantamweight division. That is probably true, but ask yourself this:

If you were to approach a stranger on the street tomorrow, and ask them about Sean O'Malley—even after the most impressive win of his career—the odds of them knowing who you are talking about are very low.

He may be the man at 135 pounds—and a new cash cow for the UFC—but for now, he's still not Conor McGregor. Not even close.