Tommy McMillen is officially a UFC fighter, and the next step for his career is now inking date, location and opponent for his octagon debut.
McMillen, a protégé of Tim Welch and former UFC bantamweight champion Sean O’Malley, made a big splash in the MMA world this past Tuesday. Tommy “Gunz” walked into the UFC Apex in Las Vegas, looking to earn himself a contract with the UFC at Dana White Contender Series, and that he did. In a wild fight, McMillen (9-0 MMA, 0-0 UFC) rallied back after getting rocked and almost submitted to outslug then undefeated prospect David Mgoyan in a majority decision win.
Now, with a contract in hand, McMillen hopes to share a card with his friend and teammate, O’Malley, for his UFC debut.
“I really want to open up the next card for my boy O’Malley,” McMillen told MMA Junkie. “We’ve been training together a lot, two Montana kids. If it was up to me and I had my way, I’d open up the card for ‘Suga,’ 100 percent.”
As of now, there’s no official return date for O’Malley, who’s looking to bounce back from his submission loss to UFC bantamweight champion Merab Dvalishvili in June. Given the nature of his DWCS win, McMillen is hoping to have a speedy recovery and be ready to go for whenever O’Malley returns to the octagon.
“If it was up to me, I would’ve gone in there and walked out with no scratches, and I would’ve tried to get on the mic and get a fight next week,” McMillen said. “But obviously, they made me go to the hospital after the fight – I saw my opponent in there – and I didn’t want to go because I wanted to talk to Dana (White) because I knew I was going to get a contract, but I listened to the medical team. They really wanted me to go and get a head scan and make sure my jaw and my eyes were good. The only thing that came back is a broken nose. I have a little bit of a broken nose right now, but that will heal up quicker than an eye socket or a jaw, so we’re not too bad there.”
McMillen is proud of what he was able to show at DWCS, and in a way, is happy the fight went the way it did, as opposed to a quick finish. McMillen feels he was able to show the world what he’s made of.
“I saw Dana White out of his seat and he was excited, so I just knew that Dana recognized that thing that people can’t teach,” McMillen said. “A lot of people wouldn’t have gone out that first round, they wouldn’t have gone out of that guillotine. So the fact that I got out of that, and I ended the fight the way I did, I think he realized this kid has something you can’t teach, and I belong in the UFC.”
