LAS VEGAS -- There was a significant period of time in his professional boxing career when the perception was that Floyd Mayweather was not a ticket-seller. The man who became the richest fighter in boxing history and owns nearly every pay-per-view sales mark fought in front of some less-than-full houses in the first half of his career.
He abandoned the "Pretty Boy Floyd" moniker, adopted "Money May," and soon became the biggest name in the sport.
Now, UFC bantamweight champion "Suga" Sean O'Malley is nowhere near as big now in his sport as Mayweather would become in boxing. Mayweather was a cultural phenomenon which may never be repeated. He earned close to $1 billion in purses and pay-per-view points in his career and caused other fighters to re-think what was possible.
O'Malley's path toward mainstream superstardom has been different. He was almost a cult figure on the night that he earned his UFC contract on a sweltering July day in Las Vegas in 2017 when he knocked out Alfred Khashakyan late in the first round on Week 2 of Season 1 of Dana White's Contender Series.
The YouTube video of the fight quickly got million of views. UFC president/CEO Dana White said they used to use the number of views a fighter from Contender Series got on YouTube to determine where to place them on the cards when they began to compete in the UFC.
A video the UFC released of the fight in 2018 has nearly 7 million views. White's recollection, though he's not certain, is that the original had close to 10 million. Either way, it was clear early on there was something about O'Malley that resonated with the fan base.
He defends his title on Saturday against No. 1 contender Merab Dvalishvili in the main event of Noche UFC at Sphere in White's $20 million "love letter to the Mexican people." White has repeatedly said the venue is the star in this event, but it's very conceivable that the platform created by the spectacular production creates a situation for O'Malley to move to the next level with an impressive win.
More on that in a bit.
Former middleweight champion Michael Bisping, a UFC Hall of Famer and a color analyst on ESPN broadcasts, said it's not hard to figure why O'Malley's a star.
"It's the same thing as other fighters: Wins, titles, attitude and confidence," Bisping said. "But O'Malley is a little different and has his own style. His skills are absolutely not in question. He is confident. He talks the talk and the wild dress sense, the multi-colored hair, etc, all go with the image. He's cool, basically. He's cool in person and a monster at 135 [pounds]."
O'Malley's cool and has a way about him that attracts people. He's quick and fast, one of the most accurate punchers in the sport and finishes opponents like few others. His fights bring people out of their seats.
He's also not afraid to tweak those in high places. He appeared this week on former champion Henry Cejudo's podcast with Kamaru Usman and dogged Cejudo, whom he has occasionally feuded with.
“I’ll keep this short," O'Malley said when he was introduced by Usman. "I came here for two reasons: One, to give praise to Kamaru. You’re an absolute legend. Two, Henry, how’d you let [Aljamain Sterling] take you down so easily? You’re welcome!”
Asked Wednesday at Noche UFC media day at Apex who he considers the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world, O'Malley chose himself. Asked for his No. 2, O'Malley tweaked White, who has been running a campaign boosting heavyweight champion Jon Jones as No. 1 pound-for-pound and trying to come up with many ways to say the same thing.
O'Malley saw an opening for a good jibe and blasted through it.
"Jon Jones [is No. 2]," O'Malley said. "He's got f*cking dogs. He shoots guns."
After Tuesday's Contender Series show, White heaped praise on O'Malley for perhaps the 1,000th time.
In the pantheon of mega-stars in the UFC now, there are two elite tiers. At the top, by himself with no one else really close, is Conor McGregor. On that next tier sits Ronda Rousey, Georges St-Pierre, Chuck Liddell and Jones.
As UFC Hall of Famer Daniel Cormier likes to say, "There's levels to this." O'Malley's not at that St-Pierre-Rousey-Liddell-Jones level yet. But it's clear White's expectations for O'Malley are huge.
"He's right there anyway," White said when asked if O'Malley could explode after a big-performance Saturday. "When you talk about Conor's personality and all the things that make Conor McGregor, Conor McGregor, the one thing Conor McGregor always did is he delivered on the big fights. When the big fights happened, everybody said he couldn't wrestle. Everybody said he couldn't do this and that, [but] he went out and delivered every single time. To become a big star like that, I remember having conversations with Iole way back in the day about when we were doing fights in Chicago with Anderson Silva and they were asking me, 'What do you have to do to make people care about Anderson Silva?' You know what Anderson Silva did to make people care about him? He kept winning.
"In this sport, when you have what Sean O'Malley has, and you can go out and win the big fights ... O'Malley's a smart kid like Conor, too. He gets it. I don't know if you saw him on 'First Take' today, but he gets it."
O'Malley said living a champion's lifestyle has been critical to is success. He's 17-1 with 12 knockouts and a submission and his only loss was when he injured his foot and left the cage on a stretcher. He avenged that loss to Marlon Vera by defeating Vera in a title fight at UFC 299 in March.
Bisping expects him to make it to that high level, but said it will take time. O'Malley only had two title fights and has been champion for just 13 months.
Bisping concurred with White's point that a series of wins will cement him as a huge attraction in the sport.
"In terms of star power and leveling GSP and Ronda, he'll almost be there [with a win Saturday] but probably a couple of more wins are needed," Bisping said. "He's only had one defense so far and he needs more work and time. But he's certain on his way."
Dvalishvili is an elite opponent who has taken down Cejudo as well as elite strikers such as Jose Aldo, Petr Yan and Marlon Moraes. If O'Malley takes him out as he has vowed to do, the future may well be now for 'The Suga Show.'