Sean O’Malley explains why he walked away after dropping Thomas Almeida in the first round

Sean O’Malley has an interesting reason as to why he didn’t finish Thomas Almeida in the first round.

Early on in their UFC 260 fight, O’Malley was having a ton of success and landing heavy shots. Midway through the first round, he dropped the Brazilian with a left hand and walked away as he thought he had the walkoff KO. However, the ref didn’t stop the fight and it then took O’Malley until the third-round to get the TKO finish.

According to O’Malley, he says he needed to sell some merch and was having fun in there as to why he didn’t end the fight.

“The real reason as to what happened, before the fight, I had undefeated shirts made up that said another right hand from Suga lands,” O’Malley said to Pat McAfee on his show. “I drop him in the first round but I dropped him with a left hand, I wasn’t walking away because I thought I got a walkoff knockout, I was walking away to let him back up so I could knock him out with the right hand and sell my shirts. Which are doing absolutely incredible right now.”

Sean O’Malley, UFC 260

Although selling the merch was part of it, Sean O’Malley says he didn’t feel in danger either and wanted more cage time to show off his skills.

“I went and rewatched the fight and the commentators were saying it was the biggest mistake of my life and I’m just this young kid and I need to mature, I’m not smart enough in there. I’m thinking, I’ve been doing this for 10 years, I’m pretty mature as far as a professional fighter,” O’Malley said. “I’ve been striking for a long time and I didn’t feel in any danger in there.

“If I wanted to get on him and get a TKO finish, I could’ve jumped on him and did that in the first round. That’s not what I’m in there for, I’m in there to put people’s lights out and I want to go viral,” Sean O’Malley continued. “Like I said, I have 15 minutes in there, why end it in three minutes in the first round when I am still having fun in there, I just broke a sweat… I need to get in there and have some fun, you only get to fight a couple of times of a year.”

What do you make of Sean O’Malley’s reason as to why he let Thomas Almeida up in the first round?