Sean O’Malley climbed back into the win column at UFC 324, scoring a closely-contested victory over Song Yadong in the evening’s co-main event.
While Song came out looking to take O’Malley’s head off, ‘Suga’ utilized his long-range attacks — including some well-timed teep kicks — to keep Song at bay. That worked up until the final 30 seconds when Song changed levels and secured a late takedown.
Song maintained top control through the remainder of the round, though it may not have been enough to steal the stanza.
Song once again changed levels in the second, taking O’Malley’s back near the fence halfway through the round. O’Malley appeared to be struggling with his right leg as Song spent the majority of the fight targeting the limb with calf kicks.
After kneeing the back of O’Malley’s leg, Song secured another takedown, though it didn’t take long for O’Malley to scramble his way back up — much to the delight of fans inside T-Mobile Arena. Unfortunately, O’Malley wasn’t able to land anything significant through the final minute, potentially sending us to the third and final round with the scorecards even.
An early combination from O’Malley in the third had Song leaking blood from his nose. Aside from that, there wasn’t much coming from either fighter in the first three minutes of the round.
As the crowd started to get restless, Song lunged in for a takedown, but O’Malley saw it coming a mile away and responded with a nice right hand that connected clean. As Song continued to walk down O’Malley, he ate a knee up the middle. Still, that didn’t deter him from walking forward and looking for the fight-ending blow.
O’Malley threw a desperation high kick in the closing seconds, but in the end, we went to the scorecards for a decision.
Official Result: Sean O’Malley def. Song Yadong via unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28).
