The Suga Show is back. The UFC has finalized a matchup between “Suga” Sean O’Malley (12-1) and Thomas Almeida (22-4). O’Malley announced the news on his YouTube page last night and said that the fight was booked for UFC 260 at the end of March.
While O’Malley has a huge following with a lot of hype, several years ago, Thomas Almeida was a prospect with ton of hype. In 2016, Thomas Almeida was 21-0 and he looked like he was going to be a force in the UFC‘s bantamweight division.
That’s when the promotion booked him against Cody Garbrandt. At the time, Garbrandt and Almeida entered the contest as unbeaten prospects. However, only one of them looked elite on the night that they fought.
Almeida was knocked out by Cody Garbrandt in the first round. Thomas Almeida did bounce back later in the year with a knockout of Albert Morales. However, that’s the last time he’s tasted victory inside the octagon.
We’ve only seen Almeida in the UFC three times since 2017 and he’s lost all three. He just returned back in October for the first time since January of 2018 and dropped a decision to Jonathan Martinez.
UFC’s Suga Show
As we were going through 2020, it appeared that the sky was the limit for the Suga Show. Sean O’Malley had two years off with some USADA issues, but returned with two vicious knockouts in the first half of the year.
Many were saying that he would be challenging for a UFC title at some point in 2021. However, that was all derailed when he took on Chito Vera back at UFC 252 in August. O’Malley looked very good when the fight started.
Vera was biting hard on feints, but halfway through the round, Vera started finding success. He ended up landing a calf kick that deadened the leg of O’Malley. O’Malley ended up rolling his ankle a number of times after.
Seeing the wounded O’Malley in front of him, Chito went in for the kill and got the stoppage. In all honesty, if O’Malley was going to lose, it was the most ideal situation. He didn’t get outclassed or dominated so his brand really didn’t suffer.
Now, we will see his return at UFC 260. This fight is so interesting because Almeida needs to win to keep his spot in the UFC while O’Malley needs to win to regain some steam. It’s honestly a must-win fight for both of these bantamweights in March.