UFC bantamweight title contender Sean O’Malley is super chill and rarely gets upset, one of the benefits of smoking as much weed as he does. But one thing that can penetrate his smoky hide is theft; specifically, theft from MMA managers who continue to prey on underpaid UFC fighters, which is why “Suga” and his crack legal team will be turning the industry upside down.
Just remember … Jon Jones tried to warn us.
“I’m waiting to release it the right way. It will be … I think it’ll be a big deal, it’ll be massive, and it will hurt someone’s business and rightfully so,” O’Malley told Aaron Bronsteter. “So I’m gonna put it out there the right way. I gotta talk to my legal team and make sure we’re doing everything right. But yeah, MMA managers are so bad. It’s horrible, it’s embarrassing; they’re stealing money from fighters; they’re taking percentages of [their] bonuses. That really p***es me off, to be honest.”
Some former fighters suggest current combatants should fire their managers and spend that money on world-class coaches. Others insist managers are there to keep fighters from doing “dumb sh*t” like competing injured or taking the wrong fight. Either way, O’Malley doesn’t want anyone but the athletes touching the post-fight bonuses.
“You go out there and win a bonus, you have a war, and you get $50,000 and these managers are trying to take a percentage of that? It really actually … not a lot of things drive me crazy, not a lot of things get under my skin and make me mad, but that does,” O’Malley continued. “And I’m gonna be fighting for fighters’ rights in this management stuff. These MMA managers are horrible, they do not deserve 15 percent, 10 percent of their negotiation with the UFC. That’ll be a whole series of things to come, and I’m excited to be on the … it’s for fighters, 100 percent and yeah, that’s still a ‘stay tuned’ moment.”
O’Malley will have to table his offense against MMA managers for the time being. “Suga” is scheduled to challenge bantamweight champion Aljamain Sterling for the 135-pound strap atop the UFC 292 pay-per-view (PPV) card next weekend in Boston. After that, beware of the “Suga” legal team and its war on MMA mountebanks.
This story originally appeared on MMA Mania
