CNN
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Three men are sitting on a bench. The one on the right is singing on a flute, the one in the middle is strumming a guitar, and the one on the left is tapping slowly on a tambourine.

As one commentator on the video put it, “I would love to show this to someone and ask them to guess who the UFC 135lbs champion is.”

The commentator is right. Sean O’Malley, seated on the left with the tambourine, is one of the most talented fighters in the world and has one of the most colorful personalities – and haircuts – in the UFC.

Known for his creative output on social media and massive success in the Octagon, O’Malley has quickly become a fan favorite and UFC champion.

Not only does he stand out for his unique appearance – facial tattoos and a striking hairstyle are part of the 29-year-old’s unique image – but also for his nickname: “Suga.”

He got the nickname from his first coach, Johnny Aho, in his hometown of Helena, Montana, because O’Malley was “just so much fun to watch.” O’Malley describes his fighting style to CNN Sport as “beautiful, violent, but not a violent act.”

He more than delivered on that promise.

20 professional fights, 18 wins, one loss and one no contest have propelled O’Malley to the top of the UFC bantamweight division, having successfully defended his belt once. He will make his second title defense against Georgia’s Merab Dvalishvili on September 14 at UFC 306.

But the road to the top of the most popular sports list was not always easy.

O’Malley was on his way up. In 2018, his star was ascendant and he was a fighter predicted to reach the absolute top.

But then he could fight no more.

O’Malley announced on social media that he had withdrawn from his October 6, 2018, fight against Jose Quiñonez at UFC 229 after failing a doping test.

The United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA), the UFC’s anti-doping partner, later announced that O’Malley had tested positive for the banned substance ostarine – defined by USADA as a “non-specified substance in the class of anabolic agents” – during out-of-competition testing in 2018. He was suspended for six months as a result, during which time he also underwent hip surgery.

He was scheduled to return to action on July 6, 2019 at UFC 239, but was pulled shortly beforehand after testing positive again for ostarine. He was given an additional six-month suspension following USADA’s “investigation into O’Malley’s positive tests, including extensive follow-up testing, his agreement to keep a food log, his heightened care in selecting supplements, and finding no evidence of intentional use.”

USADA said the “pattern of low urinary ostarine concentrations observed in multiple samples provided by O’Malley was consistent with exposure to ostarine as a contaminant.”

The forced two-year hiatus took its toll on his mental health – he told the UFC website he was dealing with his share of “depression” and “anxiety” – while also taking time to maintain his innocence. But he made sure to keep things in perspective during his time away.

“(People) are being judged for things they never did, and I feel that way, in a way,” he said. “But it’s so much smaller than those things. I have food. I have water. I have shelter. So my life is still very good; I just have to make sure that I keep the perspective that it could have been a lot worse.”

Despite the personal setback, O’Malley used the time to improve his skills. “I feel like I’m twice as good. I’m stronger in every aspect overall,” he told MMA Fighting after his return.

And when he finally did make his comeback, he came back with a bang, with two first-round knockouts restoring his reputation as one of the UFC’s most explosive fighters.

But O’Malley suffered another blow when he lost to Marlon Vera in late 2020, his first defeat of his career. O’Malley appeared to be bothered by a leg injury sustained after a devastating kick from his Ecuadorian opponent. After the fight, O’Malley’s coach Tim Welch revealed that he had suffered damage to his peroneal nerve, which was blocking the blood supply to his right foot.

Although O’Malley called it an accident, Welch said on his YouTube channel that he felt responsible for what happened, saying the ankle wraps were too tight and he should have delayed the start of the confrontation to redo them.

While some fighters’ confidence took a hit after their first defeat, O’Malley suffered no such problems.

He won three in a row and climbed back up the rankings, but his fight against Pedro Munhoz was ruled an unintentional loss due to an unintentional eye poke from O’Malley.

With his return to form, O’Malley showed why he was seen as the next big star, first beating former bantamweight champion Petr Yan and then claiming the division’s title belt for himself with a stunning knockout of Aljamain Sterling last year.

With all the hype surrounding him, O’Malley tells CNN it never got to be too much. “I’ve never really felt the pressure to perform. I always kind of enjoy it. I get to go out there and do that, so I’m excited.”

But before he could cement his position at the top of the sport, he had one more challenge to overcome: revenge on Vera.

O’Malley vs. Vera 2 was scheduled for March 9 earlier this year.

In traditional O’Malley style, he appeared in his first fight against the Ecuadorian in flamboyant style: he wore black sunglasses, a bright green shiny jacket, no shirt, white pants and white shoes.

Simply put, O’Malley looked like the right guy. And when it came to in-ring action, O’Malley played it.

Decked out in his blue and pink cornrows and pink fight shorts, O’Malley put in an impressive performance, using his “sharp boxing technique and variety of punches, sharp footwork and superior speed to outbox Vera for most of the bout,” MMA journalist E. Spencer Kyte wrote on UFC.com.

O’Malley was a deserving winner, retaining his title for the first time. Not only that, he was the talk of the town in the MMA world.

Former featherweight champion Alexander Volkanovski called O’Malley’s performance “impressive”, while welterweight fighter Stephen ‘Wonderboy’ Thompson said his “feints and distance management are some of the best in the game!!!”

After a few difficult years, O’Malley has risen to the top of his division thanks to his unique blend of martial arts, fashion sense and personality outside the Octagon, making him a fan favorite among UFC fans.

There are many outrageous characters in the world of mixed martial arts, but O’Malley is the most adept at it.

One of his most notable features are the various tattoos he has on his face.

The fighter has “Suga” tattooed over his right eye, and “CHAMP MMXXIII” above it after winning the UFC bantamweight title last year.

They’ve since become a staple of O’Malley’s look, but he explains there was no clear plan behind their creation.

“Some days I just wake up randomly and I’m kind of spontaneous or impulsive and you have an idea and you’re like, ‘Let’s do it,'” he said. “So that’s kind of what happened. I guess it was kind of like back then, rappers were doing it, but I was like, ‘Well, I’m trying to stand out.’

“I believed that my fighting skills stood out. I knocked people out. How else do I stand out? Everyone is a bit the same. A few tattoos on the face, a few colorful hairs and boom.”

Moreover, his social media activity is very different from the traditional content his contemporaries see.

O’Malley offers insight into his personality and humor through his videos, which often feature him joking around with friends or performing odd workouts.

He explains that he has always been the ‘class clown, the crazy kid’ and that he looked for a way to make that more tangible through social media.

“I’ve always thought of social media as, ‘If you can make people laugh, if you can make people giggle, they’re going to follow you.’ Followers are becoming dollars. Views are becoming money,” he told CNN Sport.

“So I think it’s just fun to try to come up with things that people can laugh at. I definitely look back at my older social media posts and be like, ‘Damn, that was really awful.’ But I thought it was funny at the time. I think I’ve always tried to be the funny guy, the crazy guy.”

While his unique blend of charisma and success in the Octagon has garnered attention, he stresses that it hasn’t all been positive. He recalls a time when he was gaming and his home address was “swatted” — when a caller files a false crime report with the intention of initiating a law enforcement operation on a target’s home.

But O’Malley believes authenticity is essential for any professional athlete.

“I think people just notice when you’re being yourself. Fans notice when people are trying too hard or not being themselves,” he said. “So you have to be yourself. But you also have to try to be creative. Be yourself. Surround yourself with good people.

“They always say life is about the journey, not the destination. It’s true. Just hang out with good people every day, have a good time, train hard, don’t take life too seriously.”