Teddy Atlas praises UFC bantamweight Sean O’Malley: “He’s got all the makings of a star”

Boxing legend Teddy Atlas shared some high praise for UFC bantamweight ‘Suga’ Sean O’Malley.

O’Malley (15-1 MMA), who previously dubbed himself ‘The Unranked Champ’, returned to the Octagon earlier this month at UFC 269 for a fight with Raulian Paiva.

The highly anticipated matchup resulted in a first round TKO win for Sean O’Malley. ‘Suga’ was able to drop Paiva with a right hand and proceeded to unload strikes until the referee mercifully stepped in to stop the contest (see that here).

Sean O’Malley TKo’s Raulian Paiva at UFC 269

That victory marked O’Malley’s third win in a row and earned him a spot in the top-15 of the official UFC bantamweight rankings.

Given his recent success and and undeniable popularity, boxing legend Teddy Atlas believes the sky is the limit for ‘Suga’.

“Sean O’Malley all the makings of a star. Obviously the look, the ‘it’ factor when he gets into the ring; he lights it up. He’s charismatic, he’s smart. He’s got that ‘it’ factor. But he can fight, too… With all that stuff going on, O’Malley can fight.” Atlas said in a interview with The Schmo (h/t MMANews).

“We wanna see him tested, of course. But there are special privileges out there, let’s be real. When a guy can bring money in, when a guy can be Conor McGregor, or potentially Conor McGregor, they get a little special privileges, where they can fight, maybe, a little bit of a lighter competition as they’re allowed the build. I think he’s (Sean O’Malley) probably fallen under that category. They wanna use him a little bit, I think, to help the brand again, you know, build UFC like any other brand, like the NFL. Why do they go to Europe? To build the brand.”

For his part, O’Malley appears to be taking his new UFC ranking seriously sharing the following words in his podcast.

“Now, I just want to f*cking get healthy and then just get back to training. Because dude, we are going to be fighting the best of the best very soon.” Sean O’Malley explained. “And it is that once you start fighting the best of the best, you do not go backwards… I have zero craving to go to parties at the moment.”

In addition to his recent stoppage win over Raulian Paiva earlier this month in Las Vegas, ‘Suga’ previously scored finishes over Thomas Almeida, Eddie Wineland and Kris Moutinho under the UFC banner.

Who would you like to see Sean O’Malley fight next? Share your thoughts in the comment section PENN Nation!