At last month’s UFC 276 Sean O’Malley fought to a no contest with Pedro Munhoz. The bout, which Munhoz was winning on the scorecards, was called off in the second round after Munhoz was rendered unable to compete by an eye poke from O’Malley.

As soon as the Fight was over O’Malley acted like he had won and has since claimed that Munhoz was play-acting (despite the Brazilian suffering a scratched cornea).

The UFC match-makers haven’t punished O’Malley for a ho-hum performance that culminated in an illegal blow, though. Instead he’s been giving the biggest opportunity of his career.

At UFC 280 he is scheduled to meet former champion Petr Yan. A win for O’Malley would almost certainly thrust him into a title fight with the winner of Aljamain Sterling vs. T.J. Dillashaw (which also happens at UFC 280).

Someone who is firmly in O’Malley’s corner is combat sports provocatuer Jake Paul. Paul recently had O’Malley on his podcast, where he praised ‘Suga’ and bashed Munhoz.

“I just have to say, bro: Pedro Munhoz pulled the biggest bitch move in all of UFC history,” said Paul (ht sportskeeda). “And Pedro, if you’re watching this, you are a fucking bitch, mate. I went out of my fucking way to DM him. I don’t DM people, [but] I DM’d him. I found his little shitty Instagram and I said, ‘Yo! You are the biggest bitch in the world.’”

To back up his claim of talking trash to one of the UFC’s top bantamweights, Paul shared a screenshot online purporting to be the DM he sent Munhoz.

“You are a pussy with all these fake ass injury’s [sic] you’re trying to take during this fight,” read the DM. “You’re an embarrassment.”

Paul, who lit up 2021 with circus fights against Ben Askren and Tyron Woodley, has had a disappointing 2022. This month he was supposed to make his MSG debut with a fight against Tommy Fury.

Weeks before the fight Fury was removed from the bout due to his inability to travel to the US. It is believed that Fury’s travel ban is as a result of his older brother Tyson Fury’s association with alleged drug trafficker Daniel Kinahan (who was sanctioned by the US government earlier this year).

After Fury fell out of the fight, Paul placed Hasim Rahman Jr. in his stead. However, days before the bout, Paul cancelled the event altogether. He cited concerns over Rahman’s ability to make weight for the contest.

Rahman contested this reasoning and held a mock weigh-in to show Paul (and the world) that he could of made the weight. That didn’t go as planned, though, with Rahman missing his target.