Alexandre Pantoja Says Sean O’Malley Wanted to Quit Rough Sparring Session

Ultimate Fighting Championship flyweight king Alexandre Pantoja has a date on the books with Brandon Royval at UFC 296 on Dec. 16, but he may have bigger fish to fry.

If successful in December, Pantoja (26-5) could move up a weight class to challenge Sean O'Malley for the UFC bantamweight title. In a recent callout, Pantoja accused “Sugar” of not following through with promises, among other alleged discretions related to former training sessions the pair shared.

O’Malley has since claimed that he finished “The Cannibal” in the very first round but chose to go for a second and third round, where he admits to getting choked out. Pantoja has now shared more details of his version of events, which continues to vary starkly from O’Malley’s.

According to the UFC flyweight champ, he sparred with O’Malley on two separate occasions. Pantoja claims he had landed in Arizona after 50 hours of travel and had jet lag when he first trained with the 135-pound king. While he didn’t detail how the first session played out, the Brazilian claims he wasn’t at his best that day and returned a week later.

Unlike their first encounter, Pantoja sparred only with O’Malley this time out, allegedly battering “Sugar” to a point where he wanted to quit but was persuaded back into action by Henry Cejudo. The 33-year-old recently elaborated on the controversy with Sherdog Brazilian correspondent Marcelo Alonso:

“I go with Cejudo the next week… that day I just trained with O’Malley and I beat him too much, you know? Because when he finished the second round, he tried to leave the cage: ‘Hey, I’m done.’ And at that point Cejudo said, ‘No, finish the training. You’re going to do three rounds, that’s it.’ And when he hit back, he don’t have more any cardio, I put him down and went to mount and punished him a lot.”