UFC: Brian Kelleher Thinks Sean O’Malley Is Playing A Role On Purpose
It’s safe to say that Brian Kelleher wasn’t impressed with how Sean O’Malley carried himself, following his first round TKO stoppage to Marlon Vera in the UFC 252 co-main event.
O’Malley injured his foot early on, thought to be from a calf kick, and was finished soon after. The 25 year old however, has downplayed the result, claiming that he’s still undefeated mentally.
Playing A Role
Having also lost to Vera, Kelleher didn’t appreciate O’Malley’s lack of respect shown towards ‘Chito’. Speaking to MMA Fighting, ‘Boom’ suggested that ‘Suga’ is deliberately playing a ‘brash and cocky’ role.
“I don’t like the way he handles the loss,” Kelleher said. “Still putting ‘Chito’ down, not really accepting it. But I do think that business-wise, he’s kind of doing this on purpose. I don’t know if he’s getting information from other guys that have done this in the past, but you know, you have people that love you, you make people hate you, and you have all areas covered as far as fanbase goes, and people that want to see you fight whether they want to see you win or lose.
“I think O’Malley’s kind of playing that role where he’s like, ‘Alright, I’m gonna make you hate me. I’m just gonna keep being brash and cocky and you know, I’m still undefeated. So F you, and I’m gonna keep being me’ type of thing. I don’t blame him for doing that, but I like to see a little bit more humble honesty when it comes to real true answers for facing defeat.”
Kelleher vs O’Malley?
Kelleher has openly expressed his interested in a matchup with O’Malley in the past, but doesn’t expect ‘Suga’ to accept a fight with him inside the Octagon.
“I wouldn’t think that I would be a bad matchup for them to do now,” Kelleher said on a potential fight with O’Malley. “I think it makes pretty good sense. But I said this before, a lot of the want and desire to fight him was to take that [zero], to be the first guy to beat him and steal the hype and everything, and Marlon Vera kind of just did that. It doesn’t have as much steam to me as it did, but I would still do it. It’s always a big fight with a guy with that big of a following.
“I think they’re gonna go a safer route with him and give him a very, very winnable fight again and then go from there.”
Would you like to see Brian Kelleher vs Sean O’Malley?
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