Sean O’Malley beats out Alex Pereira, Islam Makhachev and Zhang Weili for Best MMA Fighter ESPY
Sean O’Malley added another piece of hardware to the collection.
On Thursday night, the 2024 ESPY Awards took place — the annual ESPN awards show celebrating the best in sports over the previous year. In the category for Best UFC Fighter, the UFC bantamweight champion won the award, beating out light heavyweight champ Alex Pereira, lightweight titleholder Islam Makhachev, and strawweight champion Zhang Weili.
Since the start of 2023, O’Malley has competed twice. He won the 135-pound world title with a second-round knockout victory over Aljamain Sterling in the main event of UFC 292 in Boston this past August and then returned to the octagon in March to headline a loaded UFC 299 event in Miami against rival Marlon Vera. O’Malley dominated “Chito” over five rounds in their rematch to earn his first successful title defense.
As of now, O’Malley’s second title defense has not been announced. The fast-rising star is expected to face streaking contender Merab Dvalishvili.
O’Malley joins 2023 winner Jon Jones on the list of fighters to capture the Best MMA Fighter ESPY award, as well as Charles Oliveira, Khabib Nurmagomedov, and Daniel Cormier. Prior to 2019, MMA fighters competed alongside boxers for a Best Fighter ESPY award before receiving their own category.
Demetrious Johnson, Conor McGregor, and Ronda Rousey are previous winners of the Best Fighter statuette.