Helena native Sean O’Malley is one of the UFC’s fastest-growing stars. He has a professional mixed martial artist with a 15-1 record.
A while back, In Phoenix, in the Arizona Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu state championships, O’Malley suffered the most memorable defeat of his professional career. However, everyone present there was happy after the loss.
O’Malley competed in an Unlimited BJJ “Super Fight” against a local fighter with Down syndrome named Isaac Godoy.
O’Malley said: “One of our buddy’s, Allan (Di Lucia), is his coach and owns the (Unlimited BJJ) gym and he has free classes for special needs kids. So he messaged me on Instagram and asked me if I wanted to compete against him and I was jacked.”
“He said it would make his day, and I told him it would make mine, so doing stuff like that is just priceless, that’s where pure happiness is.”
In front of a large crowd of onlookers on Sunday at Phoenix College, both boxers put on their gis and entered the ring. Early in the battle, Godoy and O’Malley gauged each other’s strengths and weaknesses.
Then, Godoy went for the takedown. He finally forced the UFC star to submit with a choke.
O’Malley said “I wasn’t too familiar with what he was capable of doing, but his coach told me if he takes my back he can choke or he can do an armbar. But it was a lot of fun and it, was a good time.”
The two combatants exchanged hugs after the bout. Then Godoy raised his hands in the air to thunderous ovation from the audience.
“After watching the video and seeing him get his hand raised, it was awesome. He was just super excited,” O’Malley said.
“The cool thing is, he’d be happy doing anything whether it’s jiu-jitsu or anything else, he’s just a happy kid who we could learn a lot from.”
O’Malley will return to the UFC cage against Pedro Munhoz on July3rd as a part of the UFC 276 main card