O'Malley survives brutal foot injury to win decision over Soukhamthath

Sean O'Malley is as resilient as he is tantalizing.

Despite a scary foot injury in the third round, the bantamweight blue-chipper managed to make it to the final bell and get his hand raised at Andre Soukhamthath's expense by unanimous decision Saturday at UFC 222 in Las Vegas.

The MMA Lab product - whose teammate Mackenzie Dern picked up a victory on the evening's prelims - improved to 10-0 as a pro with his sophomore victory in the Octagon.

O'Malley hobbled Soukhamthath with a low kick within seconds, then proceeded to style on his foe with a bevy of different looks. With under a minute remaining in the first frame, the highly touted prospect rocked Soukhamthath with a right hand and uncorked a typhoon of kicks in pursuit of a knockout, but couldn't beat the round-ending horn.

The pair made it to the mat in the middle stanza, and O'Malley continued to dazzle with triangle choke, armbar, and rear-naked choke attempts, the latter of which Soukhamthath had to ride out to see the third round.

Soukhamthath's opportunity to rally came minutes into the final frame, as O'Malley injured his right foot while throwing an errant kick. Trailing badly on the scorecards, the 29-year-old Soukhamthath left a hurting O'Malley with only one leg to stand on thanks to a few blistering low kicks, but betrayed abysmal fight IQ by wrestling him to the mat as opposed to resuming his attack on the feet. O'Malley valiantly rode out the remainder of the contest on his back, and was still laying on the canvas when Bruce Buffer declared him the winner.

Soukhamthath has now lost three of his four UFC outings - all by decision.