Alexandre
Pantoja not too long ago doubled down on his
claims of getting gotten the higher of Sean
O’Malley in sparring.
Pantoja and O’Malley have gone backwards and forwards prior to now over the
results of a sparring session that they had six years in the past. Pantoja claims
to have bested “Sugar” throughout a sparring session main as much as the
Brazilian’s
Final Preventing Championship debut.
In the meantime, O’Malley has utterly refuted that narrative, claiming
to have stopped Pantoja as a substitute with a liver kick within the very first
spherical.
Pantoja is now scheduled to defend his flyweight title in opposition to
Steve
Erceg (12-1) in the principle occasion at UFC
301 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. “The Cannibal” reiterated his
stance on the sparring session with O’Malley when requested a couple of
potential transfer as much as bantamweight sooner or later.
Pantoja claims former champ Henry
Cejudo informed him that he would by no means get the sparring footage
from O’Malley. Whereas Pantoja admits {that a} transfer as much as 135 kilos
doesn’t make a lot sense for him in any other case, he’s open to the concept
of settling his beef with the bantamweight champ.
“Proper now, the champion for the bantamweight is Sean O’Malley and
I’ve some historical past with him,” the 34-year-old not too long ago informed
Shakeil Mahjouri. “Earlier than I began speaking
about O’Malley, he discuss first about me. And I don’t perceive how
he began speaking as a result of I [sparred] with him six years in the past for
my first UFC combat. And he [said] some unhealthy issues about that, and
that’s loopy as a result of he recorded the sparring. And [at] the top of
the sparring I [said], ‘Hey ship to me the video then I can see
your coaching.’ And he by no means handed the coaching to me.
Then I requested, ‘Hey Cejudo, are you able to discuss along with your pal for him
[to] ship the video.’ And Cejudo stated to me, ‘He not gonna ship to
you bro, you smash him, he not gonna ship to you.’ I say, ‘OK,
that’s OK doesn’t matter.'”
Pantoja added: “I by no means take into consideration going as much as the bantamweight,
doesn’t make sense for me. I’ve big opponents at flyweight. However
the one factor I can think about to go to the bantamweight is to combat
with O’Malley as a result of he say one thing unhealthy.”
In his most up-to-date outing, O’Malley defended his throne for the
first time with a lopsided unanimous resolution win over Marlon Vera
at UFC
299 final month.
