Bantamweights
Sean O'Malley (11-0) vs. Eddie Wineland (24-13-1)It is promising to see O’Malley back on a frequent fight schedule after issues with USADA derailed his career. O’Malley was a clear standout of the first season of Dana White’s Contender Series, making a mark with a quick knockout while standing out due to his personality and fighting style. It should come as no surprise that the UFC has been firmly in the O’Malley business ever since. His debut win over Terrion Ware was in a co-main event slot, and his follow-up effort against Andre Soukhamthath was on the UFC 222 main card. O’Malley looked good over those six rounds and there was some intrigue as to how he would perform against better competition, but everything was quickly put on ice. First came a foot injury suffered in the Soukhamthath fight; just as O’Malley was ready to return, USADA flagged him for issues with ostarine, similar to those that affected Jon Jones. However, without Jones’ clout, O’Malley was left to miss all of 2019, only to finally return in March. To his credit, O’Malley looked as sharp as ever in quickly dispatching Jose Alberto Quinonez, and now he returns to climbing the ladder against Wineland.
Wineland has enjoyed quite the successful career—he was World Extreme Cagefighting’s first bantamweight champion and challenged for the UFC strap in 2013—but he has become something of a forgotten man in the division. One part of that is the slide he endured shortly after facing Renan Barao for the bantamweight belt, as he suffered a broken jaw against Johnny Eduardo and looked flat upon his return. Another part? While Wineland has rounded back into form in the ensuing years, he has been quite inactive, with 2016 marking the last time he has fought twice within a calendar year. Wineland has his own unorthodox style on the feet—he fights with his hands down and uses a lot of unusual movement—but at his core, he is willing to throw down when it counts and his toughness has gotten him through those situations more times than not.
Wineland is the right step up in competition for O’Malley in terms of level of fighter, but this is still a style matchup that completely favors the younger prospect. The real questions for O’Malley are going to come when he can face the tougher grinders in the division, and while Wineland probably has enough wrestling to cause some problems in the abstract, that is not a skill set on which the veteran ever chooses to rely. This figures to be a striking match through and through, and O’Malley figures to hit harder, get hit less and hold up better in exchanges. This may take a while to get going, but once O’Malley finds a rhythm or Wineland simply chooses to press the action, “Sugar Sean” should have no problem finding his target over and over again. The pick is O’Malley via second-round stoppage.
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