Sean O’Malley will undergo hip surgery. The former champion sustained the injury while preparing to defend his belt, but still did not withdraw from UFC 306.
Sean O’Malley suffered a hyperextension of the arthritic casing of his hip about ten weeks before his fight with Merab Dvalishvili. Despite this, the American continued his training camp and went out to the octagon to fight the Georgian.
O’Malley lost his championship title and scored a lackluster performance in the evening’s fight. Sean announced a break from competing even before the Noche UFC gala. Now it has finally come out what the reason was. According to preliminary information, the former cock category champion will not return to the octagon until the summer of 2025 at the earliest.
So it’s worth asking whether O’Malley made the decision to enter the octagon at UFC 306 purely for the money? Even Dana White head of the UFC organization admitted that the talented fighter was not himself in this fight and looked as if his form was slipping away.
If O’Malley reported the injury to the UFC staff then the eventual replacement would have 9-10 weeks to prepare for the fight with Dvalishvili. This is a period in which to quietly make a starting form.