O’Malley v Vera was the first fight a fluke, did Sean evolve, or did Vera freeze?

[Domitian]

1 and 2 both mainly. Of course when you throw a leg kick you want to do damage but you never expect it to hit a nerve that makes the leg completely useless for your opponent. That part is a bit of a fluke that isn't necessarily replicable even if you tried. How many times have we seen that happen in the whole history of the UFC? Less than 10?

And of course, O'Malley has got better in the 3 years between the 2 fights.

 

[nostradumbass]

I'd lean towards pretty flukey. Leg kicks do more cumulative damage, and even the people throwing them aren't planning on instant drop foot and stepping on a previous injury a few minutes into the fight. Chito landed 4x as many in the 2nd fight that did nothing and he got whooped.

O'Malley has gotten better, but even at the time an instant rematch probably would have looked closer to the recent rematch.

 

[Trabaho]

Mostly Sean got better and it simply qas a new fight, new events.

 

[markantony20]

Mostly Sean got better and it simply qas a new fight, new events.

Agree and he came in with a very good game plan for the rematch

 

[Connection Lost]

Idk why you posted a photo of her lol.

My bad I thought that was chito

 

[maximus__]

So I was thinking about O’Malley v Vera 2 and going back and reading posts across the online MMA community and I’ve come across 3 main conclusions about the first fight between these two.

It usually goes along the lines of

1 - The first fight WAS a fluke and it was Sean’s ankle injury that lost him the fight.

2 - Sean has evolved since that bout and refined his skills reaching his full potential as a champion.

3 - Chito froze or at least spent too long getting a good read on Sean’s movement patterns to land a big shot.

I was wondering what you guys thought?

I know there’s probably more narratives that I’m missing in this post and I’d love to hear them!

Personally I think that O’Malley was very dialled in for this fight and took it very seriously and really put his unorthodox style on show against Chito.

However we also saw glimpses of a potential weakness in Sean’s game that he doesn’t like being pushed on the back foot or pressured. That is something I’m sure fighters like Merab or Umar will use in any potential bout with him in the future.

I know this is an old topic but I recently got reminded of it because of Sean’s recent beef with Pantoja lol.

There was some talk going into the fight that Vera had a poor camp. Vera has a tendency to drop decisions and be very hittable and this is why they originally matched them back in the day.
Vera 100% can beat O'malley. He wasn't willing to go into the firefight this time for some reason until the last round when he nearly finished him with a clean bodyshot.
O'malley is great as the hammer, but the blueprint is definitely there to beat him by making him be the nail. Merab should get it done, if he doesn't run onto a KO shot.

 

[markantony20]

Merab should get it done

Merab’s pressure and pace could very well put Sean in a bad spot.

 

[HHJ]

Who knows about the first fight....but the second fight was the performance of Sean's career. Very impressive.

 

[TheMMAnalyst]

So I was thinking about O’Malley v Vera 2 and going back and reading posts across the online MMA community and I’ve come across 3 main conclusions about the first fight between these two.

It usually goes along the lines of

1 - The first fight WAS a fluke and it was Sean’s ankle injury that lost him the fight.

2 - Sean has evolved since that bout and refined his skills reaching his full potential as a champion.

3 - Chito froze or at least spent too long getting a good read on Sean’s movement patterns to land a big shot.

I was wondering what you guys thought?

I know there’s probably more narratives that I’m missing in this post and I’d love to hear them!

Personally I think that O’Malley was very dialled in for this fight and took it very seriously and really put his unorthodox style on show against Chito.

However we also saw glimpses of a potential weakness in Sean’s game that he doesn’t like being pushed on the back foot or pressured. That is something I’m sure fighters like Merab or Umar will use in any potential bout with him in the future.

I know this is an old topic but I recently got reminded of it because of Sean’s recent beef with Pantoja lol.

I think it's a combination of all 3 to varying degrees -

1. Injuries from strikes are always essentially "flukes" in that thousands of strikes are thrown without causing significant injuries, then suddenly one does....however, kicking someone in the leg and them getting a leg injury isn't completely random

2. Sean has gotten a lot better since the first fight and was far more dialed-in and kept the initiative throughout most of the 2nd fight.

3. Chito shit the bed bad - at least in the first fight he got going halfway through the first round, in this fight he waited until like the fourth round to actually just start throwing strikes and being willing to eat counters...seemed like he was waiting on the perfect opening to make a read on and Sean just overloaded the computer with random variations of set-ups and feints.

TLDR - Sean is really good and getting better, Chito typically starts slow and started even slower, injuries from strikes are random

 

[HHJ]

Merab’s pressure and pace could very well put Sean in a bad spot.

But he could also run in on a knee and get Aljo'd

 

[Portland8242]

I really don't think Sean looked much better than he usually does. He just looked good because Chito never effectively pressured him, which allowed Sean to fight his fight with ease.

Oh yeah, the fight went how it did cause of what Chito didn't do



Totally not because he was a blatantly inferior fighter to O'malley.

 

[Portland8242]

3. Chito shit the bed bad - at least in the first fight he got going halfway through the first round, in this fight he waited until like the fourth round to actually just start throwing strikes and being willing to eat counters...seemed like he was waiting on the perfect opening to make a read on and Sean just overloaded the computer with random variations of set-ups and feints.

There's seriously people out there who think Chito had some other level he could have shown?

Clueless. What he showed was who he is as a fighter. He's not very fast or particularly technical., he's decently powerful and has some decent timing, but his skills are nowhere near elite. It was a cherry picked easy title defense for a star the UFC wants to build.

 

[TheMMAnalyst]

There's seriously people out there who think Chito had some other level he could have shown?

Clueless. What he showed was who he is as a fighter. He's not very fast or particularly technical., he's decently powerful and has some decent timing, but his skills are nowhere near elite. It was a cherry picked easy title defense for a star the UFC wants to build.

I don’t even disagree with your read, I just think looking at most of his fights (3 rounders) he gets going by the middle of the second round; now in his first five round fight he doesn’t get going until the middle of the fourth round.

Both observations can be true - one guy over-performed, the other under-performed, the contrast makes it obscene.

Just look at the stats - in the first fight Vera landed 18 strikes in the first round with 20 seconds on the clock….he didn’t land more than 17 until round 4 in the second fight. Now some of those strikes were after he injured Sean and had him shook, but at least Vera was moving forward and throwing some lead strikes after a little in the first.

 

[Portland8242]

Just look at the stats - in the first fight Vera landed 18 strikes in the first round with 20 seconds on the clock….he didn’t land more than 17 until round 4 in the second fight. Now some of those strikes were after he injured Sean and had him shook, but at least Vera was moving forward and throwing some lead strikes after a little in the first.

And on the contrary, if you think I'm some O'malley fan it's actually the exact opposite, I think the kids a turd.

Fight-wise, the first fight 100% changed after the fluke perennial nerve kick. Before that, the skill advantage was clearly on Sean's side. I don't really care what stats you throw out of context, I know what I watched.

Just out of curiosity, what were your predictions looking like for the 2nd fight?

 

[BangBang]

Chito was never that good, the one paced, tardy, equadorian mandalorian midget.

 

[jeff7b9]

There is no such thing as a fluke.

Chito threw a kick with the intent to hurt Sean and he hurt Sean.

It may have been highly unlikely but it was a legitimate technique executed by a highly trained elite professional fighter.

Chito may only land that game changer strike 1 out of X times, but that time, he landed it.

 

[m249viking]

Sherdog’s opinion changes like the wind.

Even more reason to not bother with a thread

 

[Cat Biscuits]

Oh yeah, the fight went how it did cause of what Chito didn't do



Totally not because he was a blatantly inferior fighter to O'malley.

You really take this personal eh? I give credit to Sean for being 100% focused in that fight and fighting to his best ability, but we didn't see some 300% ultra version of an evolved Sean Omalley. He didn't look any different than he did in most of his recent fights.

Did you even read what I said or did you just go straight to being offended because someone didn't agree with you? Can you even analyze someone's performance, or are you just foaming at the mouth because you want to be right that badly?

Shertard soyboy fanbois are a special kind of retarded. I'm sorry you can't comprehend what I said, but I can't fix stupid. That's on you.

 

[Cat Biscuits]

People call it a fluke because they believe that at that point in time O'Malley would have beaten Chito "X" (>5) number of times out of 10. It's not that complex, getting hung up on the word "fluke" is useless. There isn't really a more succinct way to say it.

That might be very true. Omalley might win 99 of 100. Chito may never be able to replicate that type of win again. But that doesn't make Chito's win a fluke, it was not due to luck.

Chito landed a shot that damaged his opponent and gave him opportunity to finish the fight. There was nothing lucky about throwing a kick with intent to damage. Fighters drill that shit over and over and over and over again.

 

[TheMMAnalyst]

And on the contrary, if you think I'm some O'malley fan it's actually the exact opposite, I think the kids a turd.

Fight-wise, the first fight 100% changed after the fluke perennial nerve kick. Before that, the skill advantage was clearly on Sean's side. I don't really care what stats you throw out of context, I know what I watched.

Just out of curiosity, what were your predictions looking like for the 2nd fight?

Never said you were a Suga fan.

I gave context for the strike differential, so when you say I used it out of context it makes no sense.

Never claimed Suga didn’t have a skill edge either, just that Chito got going sooner - if you were actually objective you’d see that he was far more active then in the rematch early on (for various reasons).

Suga has had leg injuries in like 25% of his UFC fights, but the Chito fight it’s a fluke huh? Interesting…kicking someone in the leg cause a leg injury….must be God hated Suga that day?

I picked Suga but thought if Chito could push a pace early he could maybe gas and KO Suga late. Still almost happened even though he didn’t do shit for the first half the fight.