Sean O’Malley may not be a UFC champion any longer, but he remains one of the most popular and well-known superstars on the roster and his viral appearance on The Contender Series played at least some part in that.
Back in 2017 when the UFC first launched the new series aimed at signing top prospects from around the world, O’Malley was featuring during an early episode when he flattened Alfred Khashakyan with a brutal first-round knockout. The finish had UFC CEO Dana White off his feet but what was perhaps most memorable from that fight besides the knockout was rapper Snoop Dogg providing commentary.
During the inaugural season of The Contender Series, the UFC provided an alternate “SnoopCast” version of the show with the famous rapper providing commentary for the fights alongside Urijah Faber, but his boisterous reaction to O’Malley’s debut only increased the buzz surrounding his entry into the promotion.
“I mean the knockout was going to go viral regardless,” O’Malley said about that moment when speaking to TMZ. “Just this skinny little white dude with a fro, just sleeping this Russian. I mean that would have been viral regardless.
“The Snoop [commentary] just elevated it to an insane level. He posted me on his Instagram twice in a row, like back-to-back and it just absolutely blew up. I think it would have done big numbers without it but absolutely insane numbers with it.”
The video clip featuring Snoop Dogg’s commentary has over 1.1 million views on YouTube not to mention the explosion on social media.
Following that win, O’Malley joined the UFC roster where he’s become one of the biggest stars in the sport not to mention eventually claiming the bantamweight title before dropping it to Merab Dvalishvili this past year.
While he always felt destined to do great things in the sport, O’Malley admits it’s a little surreal to think about how his UFC career started, especially with somebody like Snoop Dogg provding commentary to his fight.
“It was just reaffirming to myself like what I thought, what I felt was happening was true,” O’Malley said. “That truly felt like the beginning. This is the start of what I had kind of built up in my mind. Like this is the beginning of the vision.”
O’Malley praised the Contender Series for helping to launch his career and the platform has done the same for hundreds of fighters ever since. White has claimed numerous times in the past that he would produce Contender Series every week for the rest of his life if he had the choice, although the show ultimately rolls out in a season long format to allow the talent coffers to refill over time.
While Contender Series is technically part of the bigger UFC machine, O’Malley truly believes the series has carved out a place of its own at the combat sports table, perhaps even bigger than all of the other major organizations out there.
“The Contender Series is the second biggest promotion in the world,” O’Malley said. “It’s UFC and then Contender Series. There’s nothing really that’s competing with it. I mean PFL is but to be honest, I watch more Contender Series than I watch PFL or Bellator, you still don’t really know what’s going on there. But Contender Series is a huge opportunity for these guys to go out there and make a name for themselves.”
O’Malley is actually planning to attend an upcoming episode of Contender Series when one of his teammates is scheduled to compete.
That trip to Las Vegas where the show is film is also going to give O’Malley the chance to meet with UFC executives to begin discussing plans for his next fight.
O’Malley has been out of action since April when he dropped a second straight fight to Dvalishvili, which effectively put him out of the title race for the time being.
There are still plenty of other opportunities out there and O’Malley hopes to get word soon on when he gets to fight again.
“Nothing right now,” O’Malley said about his current fight schedule. “I don’t have really too many ideas. I’m going to go talk to the UFC that Monday before the fight [on the Contender Series] on Tuesday. So I’m going to go talk the UFC in two weeks and hopefully get something out there.
“I wouldn’t mind fighting one more time this year, November-December. November, obviously they do [Madison Square Garden in New York], December, they typically do Vegas. One of those sound good and if not, if it doesn’t work out, next year I’m ready to go.”