Sean O’Malley Says Lifestyle Changes Ahead of UFC 316 Are Not 'Performance Based'

Sean O'Malley didn’t avoid social media or quit smoking to have a better training camp for UFC 316. 

O’Malley lost his bantamweight title via unanimous decision against Merab Dvalishvili at UFC 306 last year. Usually a big presence on social media, “Suga” drastically dropped appearances. Previously a big marijuana advocate, O’Malley has also stopped smoking since. 

Many believe these lifestyle changes are O’Malley’s attempt to train better for the rematch against Dvalishvili in the main event at UFC 316 this weekend. However, O’Malley says that is not the case. O’Malley doesn’t think his social media usage or smoking habits adversely affected his training camp for his previous encounter against Dvalishvili. While the former champ expects those changes to perhaps positively affect his performance, that was not the initial intention. O’Malley claims to have brought about these drastic changes for inner peace.

“I feel like I’ve benefited a lot from limiting distractions in my life… I didn’t do that because, ‘Oh I didn’t have a good training camp last fight. This is how I’m gonna beat Merab and all that stuff.’ he told Demetrious Johnson. "All these decisions were not even performance based. I don’t think my last training camp was affected because I was on social media or like I smoked. I think getting off all that will probably affect my performance in a positive way but it wasn’t like, ‘Oh f—-ing I gotta beat Merab now so I’m not gonna do all [that] stuff.’  I chose to do all that stuff for more inner peace.  

Lifestyle changes are not the only adjustments O’Malley made for UFC 316. O’Malley has also undergone surgery for his damaged hip ahead of his rematch against “The Machine.” Both O’Malley and his coach, Tim Welch, have repeatedly said they have substantially increased wrestling for this camp.