Former UFC champion Sean O’Malley admits he strayed from being himself and instead tried to emulate Conor McGregor.
O’Malley (18-3 MMA, 10-3 UFC) has never shied away from comparisons to the former champ-champ McGregor, and in fact believed he was closing in on the Irishman’s star power.
“One hundred percent (I viewed McGregor as a role model),” O’Malley said on “Between Rounds.” “The way he carried himself into fights, the confidence to say what he thought was going to happen – ‘I’m going to knock this dude out in Round 2.’ I got a lot out of that. I was like, ‘OK, I can be confident like that.’ I feel like I got lost, almost, in a sense, where I wanted to be like Conor too much instead of being like myself.”
While McGregor provided a different confidence for O’Malley, he now recognizes that in trying to follow what “The Notorious” did during his time on top, he pushed himself further away from being the same “goofy” guy he’s always been.
Trying to be like McGregor worked for O’Malley for a little while. However, he recognized a change in the lead up to UFC 306, where O’Malley first faced Merab Dvalishvili.
“That was my second title defense, and I was like, ‘I want this to be big,'” O’Malley said. “I didn’t feel like it was big. I didn’t feel like Merab was a big name. I had to force it. It was at The Sphere. I felt like I had to create something and I didn’t like how that made me feel, in a sense, because I didn’t hate Merab. I would have loved to knock him out. … I feel like I made that one too personal, and I didn’t like that – but that kind of the only time I really forced anything. The ‘Chito’ beef I felt was real. I didn’t like that. That was a real one, but the Merab one I feel like I forced a little bit.”
O’Malley lost the title to Dvalishvili at UFC 306, and then failed to recapture the title in an immediate rematch (for him) at UFC 316 in June. Since losing the title, O’Malley has done a lot of self-reflection. He’s changed a few habits, including removing all social media from his phone to provide fewer distractions. He doesn’t intend to abandon what got him to the top completely, but now it’s about approaching it with a balance that works best for him as he looks to get back on track.
“I do think there’s an entertainment aspect that UFC people need to kinda do to become a superstar,” O’Malley said. “You gotta be yourself, and then you can add on to that a little bit. Yeah, finding that balance. There’s not someone there to teach you. There’s not a book.”
