The UFC 276 bantamweight bout between Sean O’Malley and Pedro Munhoz ended in a no contest, but O’Malley believes Munhoz robbed him of a spectacular finish.
The fight ended in the second round after O’Malley accidentally poked Munhoz in the eye while trying to maintain his distance. A doctor was called in and after Munhoz indicated that he couldn’t see the fight was stopped and ruled a no contest.
In the first round, O’Malley delivered a kick that was potentially a low blow, although O’Malley asserts that the kick landed on the belt line and not the groin of Munhoz. The replay was inconclusive, but the action was momentarily halted to give Munhoz time to recover. O’Malley accused Munhoz of faking the low blow and the fight-ending eye poke.
“Pedro said I poked him in the eye, which I didn’t. Maybe a little bit, but his eye was closed,” O’Malley said on Thursday during his BroMalley Show on YouTube. “Then he said that I poked him twice, so he thought the first one, in the first round, when I punched him in the eye, was a poke. That’s the one that swole his left eye shut. That’s the one that really hurt, when I punched him in the eye.”
“Right after I punched him in the eye I threw a Teep Kick. It landed on the belt line. I’ve kicked people in the nuts before. I feel the cup. It did not hit him in the nuts. That was a fake foul. I hit him in the gut and instantly, he didn’t hold his nuts. He held his eye. He was taking that low body shot to take time for the eye that I punched. That was a fake nut shot. That didn’t hit him in the nuts. If it hit him in the nuts he would have held his nuts. It would have hurt him more. It would have been a nut shot and people react different to nut shots. It wasn’t a nut shot. It was a good body shot after a good right hand,” O’Malley said.
Addressing the eye poke in the second round that led to the fight being stopped, O’Malley didn’t think it was nearly bad enough to end the fight. To be fair, he also acknowledged that only Munhoz knows what Munhoz felt. He then accused Munhoz of robbing him.
Pedro Munhoz shares medical record following eye injury against Sean O’Malley
“The second round, barely poked him in the eye. Not enough to stop the fight,” O’Malley said. “I’ve poked someone in the eye before in sparring. Never in a fight. I poked someone in the eye before and it feels gross. You don’t want to poke someone in the eye. I’ve been poked in the eye and I’ve poked someone in the eye. That was not a f**king poke in the eye. That was like brushed up. There’s no way.
“There’s no way that he could not continue that fight. Not a chance,” O’Malley emphatically said. “He robbed me of a highlight reel KO that I trained 12 weeks for because I was getting the better of him. I was checking the leg kicks. Leg kicks were hurting him.”
“He didn’t land one body shot. He didn’t land one head shot. The 26 leg kicks was probably 12. He landed a couple of decent leg kicks, but it didn’t change the fight at all. My leg felt completely fine. I guarantee his legs hurt worse than mine from his leg kicks that he was throwing. Zero landed head shots. Zero landed body shots… He wanted out of that fight,” O’Malley said.
“He didn’t want to be on the highlight reel. He didn’t want to be Eddie Wineland. He wanted out while he still could. He wanted to get another fight in the UFC.”
Sean O’Malley: ‘Pedro Munhoz robbed me of a highlight reel KO’