Sparring footage confirms Sean O’Malley did TKO Alexandre Pantoja

Two current UFC champions have been trading verbal blows in recent weeks, as bantamweight king Sean O’Malley and flyweight titleholder Alexandre Pantoja argue over a previous sparring match.

According to Pantoja, the men did spar eight years ago while they were both cutting their teeth as young MMA prospects. Then, the details got murky.

After the session, Pantoja asked O’Malley’s camp for a video of the workout. The 125-pound champ claims that ‘Suga Sean’ was afraid to release the footage.

Pantoja told the New York Post that someone in O’Malley’s circle told him: “He’s not going to send it to you, bro. You smashed him.”

O’Malley responded with a screenshot, seemingly showing him with the upper hand against Pantoja during that sparring session.

“I don’t like releasing sparring footage, but Pantoja can’t keep my name out of his mouth,” O’Malley said. “I don’t know why he brought it up; I literally finished him in the first round with a liver shot.”

Now, O’Malley has dropped the entire clip, and it looks like he was telling the truth the whole time. In it, he hits Pantoja with a devastating kick to the liver.

After circling the octagon for a few seconds, Pantoja waved off the fight before O’Malley could throw another shot. The two fighters dapped each other up, and the video ended.

It’s not new for fighters to hype up sparring sessions and claim they dominated their opponent because, as O’Malley alluded, most fighters don’t want to release sparring clips — good or bad.

However, after Pantoja told fans that he was the one who landed the shot that ended the session, O’Malley came with receipts to disprove that statement.

There’s no plan for a champion vs champion bout between the two, but perhaps if this bad blood keeps boiling, O’Malley and Pantoja can settle things in a real UFC fight.