Not long after Sean O’Malley’s memorable, stoppage loss to Marlon Vera at UFC 252, “Sugar” made headlines by claiming “Chito” is only a journeyman. That prompted some blow back from a lot of folks, including Darren Till.

Till tells O’Malley to “take your loss”

The rising bantamweight was booked to fight Vera at UFC 252 earlier this month, in a fight that was widely viewed as a big, promotional opportunity for O’Malley. The fight served as the co-main event for the pay-per-view card, and O’Malley was marketed pretty heavily leading up to the bout.

While most people understood Vera was going to be a solid test for O’Malley, “Sugar” was a massive favorite heading into the bout. Not long into the fight, O’Malley started having some issues with his leg, likely on account of kicks Vera landed.

After O’Malley stumbled to the floor late in the round, Vera brought about the stoppage with some big elbows from above.

Following the fight, however, O’Malley stopped short of praising Vera for the win. Instead, he argued the rugged fighter is only going to be a journeyman, while O’Malley claims he’ll be a champion.

Till recently appeared on Michael Bisping’s podcast, and the middleweight had this to say about O’Malley’s performance and post-fight comments (quotes via MMA Fighting)(warning: graphic language).

“You always have to give credit,” Till said. “I was saying something to someone before about Sean O’Malley with ‘Chito’ Vera, I really like Sean and I think he’s gonna be good, but you got beat, man.

Take your loss, have respect, you will be a champion yet in the future, but don’t start calling the guy who just beat you a journeyman.

“I’m not throwing disrespect at him. I think he’s a good fighter, but there’s two things that stuck out in my mind.

One, is the way that he lost [with his ankle] and it just makes me think that I fought three complete rounds with a torn MCL.

My knees are f*cked. I know what I had to fight with for those three rounds.

I couldn’t use what I’m best at. I’m a master of movement and I couldn’t do it. I was there. There was no way I was going.

Even when Rob took me down, I was in so much pain and I was like, ‘Get back up, get back up, get back up.’

Till’s not the only one

It’s hard to say what O’Malley was feeling at the time, in terms of the issues with his leg, and what he thought might have been done to it. So, it seems like there hasn’t been as much talk about that, in comparison to the “journeyman” comments.

On account of the replays that show Vera planting some kicks to the legs of O’Malley, Till hasn’t been the only person to arguethe “journeyman” comment wasn’t a good look. Especially since Vera is 4-1 in his last 5 fights, and his only loss came against another top prospect in Song Yadong (and some believe “Chito” won that bout).

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