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WASHINGTON, DC - JUNE 15: Sean O'Malley participates in a press conference with other fight winners and Dana White following UFC Freedom 250 at the JW Marriott in Washington, DC on June 15, 2026. (Photo by Nathan Posner/Anadolu via Getty Images) | Anadolu via Getty Images
Sean O’Malley is not a happy man after being snubbed for a performance bonus at the UFC White House event.
O’Malley vowed he’d get a knockout against Aiemann Zahabi and followed through, catching his opponent with a big one two that dropped him to the canvas. The moment Zahabi crumbled, O’Malley stood up straight and fired off a number of salutes to the crowd (watch the highlights here). Pretty cool, we’d say.
But instead of awarding O’Malley for the viral finish, the UFC piled the bonus money on the main and co-main event fighters. Justin Gaethje vs. Ilia Topuria rightfully got Fight of the Night, while Justin Gaethje and Ciryl Gane got the two Performance bonuses, which seems kind of whack when you think about it. Gane has been taking a lot of heat for finishing Alex Pereira with a number of pretty blatant back-of-the-head strikes. And Gaethje’s fight finished when Topuria’s corner waved the match off leading into the fifth. Gaethje technically didn’t even finish him.
Bonuses for the UFC White House event were pumped up to wild levels too. O’Malley missed out on $425,000 worth of money, $100,000 in U.S. dollars and $325,000 in various crypto. That left him sounding pretty salty in a new video on his YouTube channel.
“Then we did a f–king pointless press conference where I didn’t get a bonus and it was f–king ridiculous,” he complained. “I was just telling Tim, like these wins feel good, like it feels good but if I would have lost, those are just so much worse than wins. It’s like, why even do this s–t.”
Rather than do the standard post-event presser, the UFC had all the winners from the card come out on stage with Dana White following the event. That meant a lot of waiting around for the conference and then a lot of sitting there while other people answered questions. If you go back and watch O’Malley, he’s clearly not a happy camper as the nearly half-million dollar snub sinks in.
“Dude, Gaethje getting a double bonus? I thought for sure I was getting a bonus,” O’Malley said on his YouTube channel. “I was so confident.”
The White House win leaves O’Malley in a bit of a strange place. He believes he’s done enough for a bantamweight title shot, but the UFC has plans to do a Petr Yan vs. Merab Dvalishvili rematch sometime near the end of 2026. That means “Suga” could be sidelined until 2027 waiting for his turn to fight Yan. And if Dvalishvili wins? Well, no one wants to see O’Malley vs. Dvalishvili 3, so he’ll have wasted half a year.
We’re sure all these thoughts are bouncing around the 31-year-old O’Malley’s head. No wonder he’s in a bad mood.
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