Conor McGregor is the biggest name that’s come around in MMA for the modern generation.
The former UFC Lightweight Champion was on fire during his prime years as he had so much charisma to help sell fights and yet, McGregor could back up his trash talk inside the octagon.
So it’s no wonder that one of the biggest influences in modern MMA has rubbed off on the new generation of fighters. Sean O’Malley is certainly one of them. The former UFC Bantamweight Champion revealed on Between Rounds that he tried to emulate the UFC star and felt that he was coming close to reaching his star power.
"One hundred percent (I viewed McGregor as a role model)," O'Malley said. "The way he carried himself into fights, the confidence to say what he thought was going to happen – 'I'm going to knock this dude out in Round 2.' I got a lot out of that. I was like, 'OK, I can be confident like that.' I feel like I got lost, almost, in a sense, where I wanted to be like Conor too much instead of being like myself."
But in his pursuit to be like his favorite UFC fighter, O’Malley lost himself along the way and he recognized that something needed to change during his build up to Merab Dvalishvili.
"That was my second title defense, and I was like, 'I want this to be big,'" O'Malley said. "I didn't feel like it was big. I didn't feel like Merab was a big name. I had to force it. It was at The Sphere. I felt like I had to create something and I didn't like how that made me feel, in a sense, because I didn't hate Merab. I would have loved to knock him out. ... I feel like I made that one too personal, and I didn't like that – but that kind of the only time I really forced anything. The 'Chito' beef I felt was real. I didn't like that. That was a real one, but the Merab one I feel like I forced a little bit."
Though O’Malley isn’t looking to go full McGregor again, he does understand that guys like Conor McGregor became a superstar because of their charisma. He doesn’t plan on abandoning the entertainment aspects of his character.
"I do think there's an entertainment aspect that UFC people need to kinda do to become a superstar," O'Malley said. "You gotta be yourself, and then you can add on to that a little bit. Yeah, finding that balance. There's not someone there to teach you. There's not a book."