The ESPYS were held on July 11th, 2024, and the event saw multiple awards being handed out to athletes. One of the awards that combat sports fans were looking out for was the Best MMA Fighter Award.
The nominees for this award were UFC Bantamweight Champion Sean O’Malley, UFC Lightweight Champion Islam Makhachev, UFC Light Heavyweight Champion Alex Pereira, and UFC Women’s Strawweight Champion Weili Zhang.
The winner of the award ended up being none of than ‘Sugar’ Sean O’Malley, after the champion had a dominant 2023 and 2024, making him a great choice for the award.
Sean O’Malley vs Aljamain Sterling: UFC 292
At UFC 292 on August 13th, 2023, the UFC saw #1 bantamweight contender Sean O’Malley challenge Aljamain Sterling for his UFC Bantamweight Championship. Although some fans believed that this was an undeserved title shot and that O’Malley did not earn his way to the top, his performance that night proved otherwise.
O’Malley had the edge on Sterling for the first round, keeping the grappler on his feet for the whole five minutes when Sean knew he would have the advantage. Just 30 seconds into Round 2, O’Malley hit Aljamain with a huge overhand, which ended the fight, crowning a new UFC Bantamweight Champion.
This was a great start to O’Malley’s legacy, as a dominant performance like this over the champion turned him from a star to a megastar.
O’Malley Defends Against Marlon Vera at UFC 299
Sean O’Malley’s first defense came at UFC 299 on March 9th, 2024, where he faced off against top 5 contender Marlon ‘Chito’ Vera. Although this seemed like a normal defense on paper, it meant much more than that to O’Malley as he wanted to get the ‘0’ off his record.
At UFC 252, Sean O’Malley took his only loss of his UFC career when he was defeated by Marlon Vera in the first round. This came after O’Malley’s leg got injured and left him vulnerable for the remainder of the round. O’Malley had always claimed that he was undefeated due to the circumstances of that fight, and at UFC 299, he wanted to prove that.
That fight started and ended with complete domination from the champion, as he walked Chito down for the full 5 rounds. There wasn’t a point where it looked like Vera was pulling away or had the edge, as the fight stayed on the feet where Sean very clearly had the advantage.
This performance once again raised Sean O’Malley’s star power, as he is continuing to gain fans and is becoming one of the top stars of the UFC.
Was Alex Pereira Robbed for Best MMA Fighter at ESPYS?
With Sean O’Malley winning this award, many fans believe that UFC Light Heavyweight Champion Alex Pereira was robbed of this award and that he should’ve won it.
Alex had a great year as he made his light heavyweight debut at UFC 291, where he defeated top contender Jan Blachowicz via decision. He then faced off against Jiri Prochazka for the vacant UFC Light Heavyweight Championship at UFC 295, a fight that Pereira won in the second round via TKO.
He defended his championship at UFC 300 against #1 contender Jamahal Hill, in a fight that shocked the world as Alex Pereira was able to knock him out in the first round. At UFC 303, he rematched Jiri Prochazka in a fight that Alex ended once again in the second round, this time in a much more dominating fashion.
However, one of the reasons that Alex Pereira didn’t win this award could be his loss to Israel Adesanya which came at UFC 287. Fans could have looked at a clean Sean O’Malley record from 2023-24 and considered it a better performance as he went undefeated throughout it.
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