As someone who has gone through a similar ordeal, Sean O’Malley can relate to Nate Diaz’s recent USADA run-in and believes that it was ultimately for a greater good.
Nate Diaz’s recent UFC 244 main event against Jorge Masvidal was nearly called off earlier this month when Nate Diaz was flagged for having trace amounts of a banned substance. Sean O’Malley was also flagged for a banned substance, ostarine, and was not as fortunate as Nate Diaz. Instead, O’Malley was forced to withdraw from his scheduled UFC 239 bout against Jose Quinonez last July due to the substance resurfacing in his system following an initial September 2018 suspension. As a result, O’Malley was temporarily suspended by the Nevada State Athletic Commission (NSAC). Taking an optimistic approach, O’Malley looks at Nate Diaz’s result as a blessing in disguise for other fighters who could find themselves in a similar situation as himself and Diaz:
“So that whole situation, it was almost good it happened, just because it shed some light on the whole thing,” O’Malley told The Schmo in a recent interview. “It happens. It’s been happening to a lot of people. It happened to me, and there seems to be a lot of media on me for it, but then it happened to Nate, and even more media…ESPN, all those guys (have covered the story).”
At 25 years of age and only two fights into his UFC career, Sean O’Malley has already developed a relatively strong fan base, but his following has not shielded “Suga Sean” from the hypocrites that he has spied:
“And I’ve seen a lot of people sticking up, ‘Look at him. There’s no way he’s on anything. Look at his body,’ O’Malley said. “And those same people are the ones saying that I am on stuff when he’s probably more jacked than I am.”
Frustration aside, O’Malley is consistent in his belief that Nate Diaz’s ordeal, partnered with his own and other athletes’ beforehand will reap a positive benefit in the long term:
“It was good that it happened, and it was good that he was able to fight,” O’Malley said. “And the reason he was able to fight is because of the stuff I went through and the stuff that a lot of these other athletes went through. They were saying how insanely low his levels were. It was like 50 picograms or something. The majority of my tests were below that.”
Do you agree with Sean O’Malley? Will it prove to be a good thing that Nate Diaz’s UFC 244 USADA controversy played out the way it did?
