Sean O’Malley reveals rib injury sustained during UFC 269 training camp

UFC bantamweight contender Sean O’Malley revealed the rib injury that he sustained during his UFC 269 training camp for Raulian Paiva.

O’Malley knocked out Paiva in the first round in what was the opening main card bout on the UFC 269 pay-per-view card. It was another amazing performance by O’Malley, who is 3-0 so far in 2021 with knockout wins over Paiva, Thomas Almeida, and Kris Moutinho. For O’Malley, though, he almost didn’t even make it to this fight with Paiva. According to “Sugar,” who spoke to the media following UFC 269, he had a nasty rib injury that he sustained during his training camp. According to O’Malley, he didn’t spar for three weeks.

“I literally think if he were to have taken me down and I tried to get up, I don’t know what would’ve happened. I didn’t spar for the past three weeks. I was grappling. The guy had a body lock, he had my back, had a body lock. I went to turn. He squeezed at the same time. Nothing crazy, just grappling and I don’t really know what exactly happened. Rib injuries, if you’ve ever had a rib injury, they’re just so annoying. They take a while, but I let it chill for about a week,” O’Malley said (via MMAjunkie.com).

“I just ran and hit mitts and then tried to grapple again that next week. I couldn’t do the simplest grappling. For the last three weeks, I didn’t grapple at all. I didn’t even test it. I didn’t even want to. I didn’t want to do any clinch work. I didn’t do anything. I came into this fight, planning on him not being able to touch me and just being confident and trusting the work I’ve put in. I’m really proud of myself for having the mindset to be able to come in here and know that.”

What do you think should be next for Sean O’Malley after beating Raulian Paiva at UFC 269?