UFC 269: Sean O’Malley Looking To Make It 3-For-3 In 2021

Sean O’Malley has had a pretty good 2021 to date.

The rising contender and top prospect looks to finish it off Saturday at UFC 269.

O’Malley will square off with Raulian Paiva on the main card from the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. The card includes Charles Oliveira vs. Dustin Poirier for the lightweight title and Amanda Nunes vs. Julianna Pena for the women’s bantamweight belt.

For O’Malley, this will be his third fight of the calendar year. And, more importantly, his third fight since suffering both his only loss and an injury. 

Back in 2020, he was finished by Marlon Vera after suffering what would later be diagnosed as drop foot. 

O’Malley, though, returned with a vengeance. 

First, he finished Thomas Almeida in the third round at UFC 260 this past March for his 13th career win. He followed that up with another third round finish of Kris Moutinho at UFC 264 in July. 

Fans have been excited to see the always-entertaining O’Malley back in action. And with his placement on the pay-per-view main card, it is obvious UFC officials are excited as well.

His opponent, Paiva, has won three in a row and is now 21-3 overall. That includes a 3-2 record with the UFC. 

Paiva has rebounded from back-to-back defeats to begin his Octagon career. He scored a knockout of Mark De La Rosa in 2020, topped Zhalgas Zhumagulov later that year and downed Kyler Phillips in July.