UFC 299 rundown: O'Malley shines, but biggest test awaits
Sean O'Malley retained the UFC bantamweight title for the first time Saturday, defeating Marlon "Chito" Vera via a lopsided unanimous decision in the UFC 299 main event in Miami.
In the co-headliner, lightweight contender Dustin Poirier rebounded with a second-round knockout of Benoit Saint Denis.
Here are five takeaways from the pay-per-view event.
O'Malley perfect against Vera, but real test comes next
There's no two ways about it: "Suga" Sean put on a show in his first title defense. And whether you love him or hate him, the colorful-haired bantamweight who has face tattoos and streams video games in his spare time is the real deal.
O'Malley dominated Vera from pillar to post, using his elite timing, accuracy, speed, and footwork to batter the challenger on the feet for all five rounds. O'Malley outlanded Vera 230-89, the fourth-largest strike differential in a UFC title bout, and was never in trouble once.
He also never went into cruise control, which was impressive. Even in the fifth round - with O'Malley well ahead on the scorecards and Vera in need of one of the biggest Hail Mary finishes in MMA history to take the title - O'Malley was still looking for the finish. He wanted to put a stamp on the masterful performance. Unfortunately for O'Malley, Vera is one of the most durable fighters we've ever seen. The Ecuador native took an unworldly amount of damage but tied heavyweight champion Jon Jones for the most fights in UFC history without being finished (23). Crazier yet, "Chito" has still never been knocked down in a fight.
O'Malley pitched a shutout against Vera, but his biggest test is still ahead and was sitting cageside at UFC 299. No. 1-ranked bantamweight Merab Dvalishvili is all but guaranteed to challenge O'Malley for the title later in 2024. The only way that isn't O'Malley's next fight is if the UFC grants him his wish and books a featherweight title bout against Ilia Topuria. But UFC CEO Dana White promised Dvalishvili the next title shot and did not seem overly receptive to the idea of Topuria-O'Malley on Saturday.
The UFC 299 main event was always a favorable matchup for O'Malley, as Vera is primarily a striker and O'Malley is more technical and polished than him on the feet. But Dvalishvili, of Georgia, presents a completely different - and bigger - stylistic challenge. Dvalishvili is a cardio and wrestling machine who has won 10 in a row since 2018. The only reason he has yet to fight for the 135-pound belt is because he is teammates and close friends with Aljamain Sterling, who was champion from March 2021 until O'Malley dethroned him last August.
Dvalishvili will get in O'Malley's face and look to overwhelm him in the clinch and with takedowns. In other words, he won't fight O'Malley's fight. One sportsbook even opened Dvalishvili as the betting favorite Sunday.
If O'Malley successfully defends the title against Dvalishvili, then we can start talking about the 29-year-old Arizona resident as an unbeatable champion. But not yet.
Topuria-O'Malley would be great, but not now
O'Malley kept the champion-versus-champion craze going by calling out Topuria in his postfight interview. But here's the thing: Topuria just won the featherweight title at UFC 298 in February with a knockout of longtime champ Alexander Volkanovski. Neither O'Malley nor Topuria are very established titleholders (in Topuria's case, not at all), and both divisions are loaded with contenders. So there is absolutely no need to rush into a superfight right away.
In fact, it might be promotional malpractice to do so. Sure, Topuria-O'Malley would be a huge fight, but these are two of the biggest rising stars in the entire sport we're talking about. O'Malley is already one of the top draws in the UFC, and Topuria, who lives in Spain, represents his parents' birthplace of Georgia, and was born in Germany, is on track to becoming a mainstream sensation in Europe. They are a combined 33-1 (1 NC), and O'Malley has now avenged that one loss to Vera. The UFC has something special with both Topuria and O'Malley, and if they fought right now, one guy would take an L and lose some luster. Why (potentially) ruin something that's just getting great?
By letting Topuria and O'Malley thrive and continue to build star power in their own divisions, the UFC may actually get more bang for its buck in the long run. And hey, if in a year or two Topuria and O'Malley are dominant champs and want to fight each other, run it - it'd be bigger then than it would be now.
But as we enter the second quarter of 2024, anything other than O'Malley-Dvalishvili next would be an injustice.
Poirier is still one of the main men at 155 pounds
Poirier had his "y'all must've forgot" moment at UFC 299.
A future Hall of Famer and one of the best fighters to never win an undisputed UFC title, Poirier entered his co-main event clash against rising Frenchman Saint Denis as the underdog. It was a risky matchup for Poirier, in the sense that Saint Denis was ranked far lower, unknown to the casual fan base, and nicknamed "God of War" for a reason. And for the first seven minutes of the fight, it seemed like the oddsmakers and betting public knew what they were doing. Saint Denis set a frantic pace against his more experienced opponent, blasting Poirier with hard punches on the feet and slicing through him like butter on the ground.
But a Poirier left hand that stumbled Saint Denis and a right hook that shut out the lights was all it took for "The Diamond" to remind the masses that he's still one of the best lightweights in the world - and to send Saint Denis back to the drawing board.
The risk of agreeing to a bout against an up-and-coming fighter who had left his last five opponents either unconscious or tapping out seems to have paid off for Poirier. With Justin Gaethje vs. Max Holloway and Charles Oliveira vs. Arman Tsarukyan both set for UFC 300, Poirier might walk right into a title shot against Islam Makhachev this summer. The lightweight champ is desperate to fight in June, and it seems unlikely any four of the previously mentioned names will come out of the landmark event on April 13 ready to go again two months later.
That leaves Poirier, who has come up short in two undisputed title bids already, as the next guy up.
Real quickly on Saint Denis: Yes, he lost on Saturday, but he also proved he's going to be a force at 155 pounds for years to come. Saint Denis went toe to toe with Dustin freakin' Poirier and nearly won, and now he gets to learn from the experience and come back better. That's a terrifying thought for the rest of the division.
Yan still a problem for almost all UFC bantamweights
Former 135-pound champ Petr Yan did a little proving the doubters wrong of his own.
There was a fairly widespread belief going into his main-card bout against Song Yadong that Yan, the loser of three straight, was not the same guy who mauled Jose Aldo to win the bantamweight title in 2020 and outworked Cory Sandhagen to capture the interim belt in 2021.
Maybe he isn't, but the Russian proved with a three-round decision win over Song - in which he outgunned Song down the stretch after a typical slow start - that he is without a doubt still one of the four best bantamweights in the UFC.
It was probably silly to think that the 31-year-old was already past his prime in the first place, because if you take a closer look at his losses, it was never really that bad. A couple of split decisions that could've gone either way (against O'Malley and Sterling nonetheless), a disqualification in a fight he was winning, and a tough night against Dvalishvili. Let's use this as a lesson not to get too carried away about a fighter's downfall when, in reality, Yan was one scorecard away from a title shot or from being the bantamweight champion again.
Despaigne a heavyweight to watch
Cuban heavyweight prospect Robelis Despaigne made his highly anticipated UFC debut on Saturday's undercard, and in just 18 seconds, it became evident that he could be a threat in the division for a while.
Despaigne's opponent, Josh Parisian, caught him off balance after a slip and seemed to think it would be a good idea to rush forward and try to make a big move. Well, that worked against him. Despaigne was the one who landed the kill shot, and he quickly finished Parisian off with ground-and-pound, sending a message to the rest of the division.
An 18-second knockout is usually one of the fastest finishes on any fighter's record, but for Despaigne, it's the second slowest. Despaigne, a 6-foot-7 beast with the longest reach in UFC history, was coming off a three-second knockout, four-second knockout, and 12-second knockout in his last three regional fights. That - in addition to the fact Despaigne is an Olympic bronze medalist in taekwondo - is why so many people were excited to see this guy in the UFC.
Despaigne - now 5-0 as a pro - doesn't have a long MMA career ahead of him, as he's already 35 years old. But that's still a good four or five years at heavyweight and enough time to make more than a splash. Don't be surprised if he's one of the major players in the division in the near future and for a few years.