Alexandre Pantoja: Sean O’Malley ‘doesn’t want to show the world’ their training footage

Alexandre Pantoja wants Sean O’Malley to release what he says is a video of them training together.

At UFC 290, Pantoja won the flyweight title with a split decision victory over Brandon Moreno. O’Malley then claimed the bantamweight title by knocking out Aljamain Sterling at UFC 292.

Shortly after O’Malley’s win, Pantoja said on social media that he would be interested fighting O’Malley because he “talks too much.” He mentioned the two had trained together. O’Malley replied that he would be happy to show everyone what happened, but Pantoja does not believe “Sugar” will.

“I trained with O’Malley five, six years ago, and it never passed through my head that this guy would go to the UFC, take the belt and I take the belt too,” Pantoja said on The MMA Hour. “Very crazy. That’s why I called him to fight, just because that. He started to talk about my training with him two years ago, he started to talk about that, but let’s go back to five, six years ago when I go to the [MMA] Lab, before I arrive with [Henry] Cejudo, I made a 60-hour travel airplane flight. I never stepped in the Lab before, and I go to the Lab, do sparring with all the guys, and you need balls to do all that.

“O’Malley comes to me, ‘Hey, can I record this training?’ [I said], ‘Of course. Just when you’re finished, send me the video, because I can learn something, too.’ And he never passed the video to me. I called Cejudo [and said], ‘Hey, say to your friend to give me the video.’ And Cejudo said, ‘Forget it. He’s never going to send that video to you.’

“You know why not. If you’re losing, you don’t show the video.

“For me, that’s a good deal. Very humble kid in the moment, very talented kid, and you could see he wanted to learn more. Very special. But when the camera is on, that’s O’Malley’s show. He wants all the stuff. And O’Malley’s smart! But I’m from a very different world. My creation, my beginning in Brazil, Rio de Janeiro, very different life.”

For his part, O’Malley claims he got the better of most of the training, but he did allow that Pantoja choked him later on, adding, “I was like 1-0 or 2-0, and he was coming off The Ultimate Fighter.”

Pantoja had his own explanation for how things played out.

“In the first training, I think I was training with John Moraga, O’Malley, a couple guys,” Pantoja said. “Then I talked with Henry, because I’m not making a good training. I just arrived, went straight to the training room, I had a lot of jet lag, very tired, and I said to Henry, ‘I want to come back to this gym. I want to train with these guys again because today is not my best day.’

“He did that, and next Saturday, I went to the Lab and made a different training with these guys. I think that time I just trained with O’Malley, and he doesn’t want to show the world this footage.”

Now, several years later, both men are UFC champions and separated by just 10 pounds. Pantoja is currently set to defend his title against Brandon Royval at UFC 296, while O’Malley will presumably defend his belt against Chito Vera sometime early in 2024. But if both men keep their belts, Pantoja is hopeful they can settle their issues in the cage.

“That’s so nice, both me and him champion right now,” Pantoja said. “I’m very happy with that. And maybe I can defend my belt, he defends his belt, and then you have something very special to do. He can’t make 135, but for that guy, I’ll go 135. If somebody takes the belt again, I’ll forget that. [Laughs].”

UFC 296 takes place Dec. 16 in Las Vegas.