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UFC flyweight champion Alexandre Pantoja has revisited his past sparring session with Sean O’Malley, claiming he dominated the current bantamweight champion years ago. The two fighters have previously discussed their sparring session, with conflicting accounts of what transpired.
However, as Pantoja prepares for his flyweight title defense at UFC 301, he asserts that he decisively outperformed O’Malley, to the extent that O’Malley refused to share the sparring footage.
"In the past, I sparred with him like six years ago for my first UFC fight, and he said some bad things about that," Pantoja shared with the New York Post.
"That’s crazy because he recorded the sparring, and at the end of the training, I said, ‘Send me the video, so I can see your training.’ He never passed the training to me.
And I asked his friend, 'Can you talk with your friend to send the video?' And he said to me, 'Hey, he’s not gonna send it to you, bro. You smashed him.' He’s not going to send it to you, that’s okay."
Despite Pantoja's assertion of his dominance over O’Malley, he has no current plans to move up to the bantamweight division. He believes there are still significant challenges for him at flyweight, including his upcoming bout against Steve Erceg at UFC 301.
"I never thought to go up to the bantamweight division because it doesn’t make sense for me," Pantoja explained.
"I have huge opponents to fight at flyweight… I’m the flyweight champion, he’s the bantamweight champion. That’s good history. But, like I said, I have a huge line to fight in the flyweight division."
Should Pantoja emerge victorious against Erceg, he has his sights set on facing Muhammad Mokaev in his next fight. With a record of 27-5 and riding a five-fight winning streak, Pantoja is looking to continue his dominance in the flyweight division. He most recently defended his title with a decision win over Brandon Royval.