UFC flyweight champion Alexandre Pantoja claims he smashed Sean O’Malley when they sparred years ago.
Pantoja and O’Malley have spoken about their sparring in the past, as both have different versions of what happened. However, ahead of his flyweight title defense at UFC 301, Pantoja says he smashed O’Malley in sparring, and it was so bad ‘Suga’ wouldn’t send the Brazilian the sparring footage.
“Right now the champion for the bantamweight division is Sean O’Malley. I have some history with (O’Malley). I sparred with him like 6 years ago for my first UFC fight, and he said some bad things about that. That’s crazy because he recorded the sparring, and at the end of the training, I said send to me the video, so I can see your training. He never passed the training for me. And I asked (his friend) ‘Can you talk with your friend to send the video’, and he said to me ‘hey, he’s not gonna send to you bro you smashed him.’ He’s not going to send it to you, that’s okay,” Alexandre Pantoja said to the New York Post.
Although Alexandre Pantoja says he smashed Sean O’Malley, he says he isn’t interested in going up to bantamweight right now. Instead, he says he has big fights ahead of him at flyweight past Steve Erceg at UFC 301.
“I never think to go up to the bantamweight (division) because it (doesn’t) make sense for me,” Pantoja said. “I have huge opponents for fighting (at) flyweight… I’m the flyweight champion, he’s the bantamweight champion. That’s good history. But, like I said, I have a huge line to fight in the flyweight (division).”
Pantoja says the plan if he defeats Erceg at UFC 301 is to face Muhammad Mokaev next time out.
Pantoja enters his UFC 301 title defense with a 27-5 record and is on a five-fight winning streak. He’s coming off a decision win over Brandon Royval to defend his belt for the first time.
