Sherdog’s 2022 Robbery of the Year

Fortune favored Sean O’Malley when it mattered most.

Straight punching combinations and a late surge carried the Dana White’s Contender Series graduate to a contentious and widely panned split decision over former Ultimate Fighting Championship bantamweight titleholder Petr Yan in their three-round UFC 280 showcase on Oct. 22 at Etihad Arena in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. All three cageside judges struck 29-28 scorecards: Vito Paolillo for Yan, David Lethaby and Ben Cartlidge for O’Malley. With that, the die was cast on Sherdog’s “Robbery of the Year” for 2022.

Yan marched down the Peter Welch protégé with his educated hands and incorporated takedowns when the situation called for them. Both men were hurt in the second round, where they exchanged crushing left hands in the center of the cage. Yan appeared to do more damage, but his inability to forge a finish proved costly in hindsight. O’Malley delivered the most impactful strike of the match in Round 3, as he sent a knee crashing into the Russian’s face and hacked open a horizontal gash across the entire length of his right eyebrow. Yan, his DNA coloring the canvas with red splotches, managed to secured two takedowns in the waning moments of the encounter. However, those efforts were not enough to curry the necessary favor on the scorecards.

O’Malley outstruck the American Top Team rep 84-58 in significant strikes across the 15-minute affair. However, Yan held a 97-91 edge in total strikes, thanks to the six takedowns he completed and the nearly six minutes of control time he amassed. Only one media score of the 26 posted by MMADecisions.com sided with O’Malley. Sherdog virtual scorers Ben Duffy, John Brannigan and Tudor Leonte scored eight of the nine total rounds for Yan. Former two-division UFC champion Henry Cejudo took to Twitter to label it the “worst robbery” in the company’s history. While his sentiments certainly qualify as hyperbolic, they provided a window into how the rest of the mixed martial arts community felt about the outcome.

UFC President Dana White was diplomatic, believing both men had a legitimate claim to victory. Yan proved to be far less tactful. “F--- the judges,” he wrote on Twitter. Meanwhile, the typically cocksure O’Malley was gracious in the aftermath.

“[Yan] was as good as I thought he was,” he said at the post-fight press conference. “He was the No. 1 guy in the world. Pretty sure he was in the Top 15 pound-for-pound rankings. The dude’s a killer.”

The former Intense Fighting Championship titleholder credited Yan for forcing him to push beyond his perceived bounds.

“I don’t want to get hit ever,” O’Malley said. “It’s not healthy. It’s not good to get punched in the head. It’s not good for you to have headaches. Ideally, I go in there and not get hit, but I think it makes it even sweeter, the story. I really had to show my heart. I got to go deep. I had to go somewhere mentally and physically I’ve never been before, and that’s what happens when you fight the best guys in the world.”

It was not the only “robbery” on the radar in 2022. Others included Logan Storley-Michael Page at Bellator 281, Paddy Pimblett-Jared Gordon at UFC 282, Montserrat Rendon-Brittney Cloudy at Invicta Fighting Championships 49 and Ho Taek Oh-Ryogo Takahashi at One Championship “ONE on Prime Video 2.” None, however, had the legs of O’Malley-Yan.