Sean O’Malley avenged the only defeat of his professional career on Saturday, outpointing Marlon Vera to retain his bantamweight title at UFC 299.
It was a masterclass by “Sugar Sean”, who outstruck “Chito” across five rounds to secure a unanimous-decision win (50-45, 50-45, 50-44).
With the victory, O’Malley made his first title defence a successful one, having knocked out Aljamain Sterling to win the title in August. The American also took revenge upon Vera, who beat him via TKO in 2020.
The standout moment of the fight saw O’Malley drill a knee into his challenger’s face in round two – a shot that the Ecuadorian somehow survived. O’Malley then dropped Vera to a knee just before the buzzer signaled the end of the round.
Vera, 31, showed spirit to muster a decent spell of offence at the end of round three and early in round four, with O’Malley briefly retreating. However, the champion hurt Vera with a cross in the fifth and final round and saw out a clinical performance in the remaining minutes.
O’Malley, 29, proceeded to call out featherweight champion Ilia Topuria, saying he would gladly challenge the Georgian-Spaniard in Spain later this year.
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