Former UFC champ Sean O'Malley detoxing from social media: 'I need to level up'

Sean O'Malley wants to get rid of all distractions in his quest to regain UFC gold.

O’Malley (18-2 MMA, 10-2 UFC) lost his bantamweight title to Merab Dvalishvili this past September at UFC 306. He underwent surgery to repair a torn labrum in his hip after the fight, and is targeting a return in the first quarter of 2025.

Leading up to his next fight, O’Malley plans on disconnecting from all social media and have his team members run it for him.

“I said I was going to start in 2025, but it’s been like two or three days, and I already feel more disconnected from the internet universe,” O’Malley said on his “TimboSugaShow” podcast. “I’d be working out and I’d check my Snapchat, post some Snapchat, check Instagram. Even just three days or whatever it’s been, I already feel like – the original reason, and I don’t know how to articulate this yet, but I feel like my higher self is trying to tell me something. I’m trying to learn something, but I’m too distracted and out of touch with reality to grasp what’s trying to be taught from my higher self.

“And I feel like the only way to do that is just to disconnect from distractions. Social media is the biggest distraction right now for me. I’ve already started reading more, writing more, it’s just going to force me to continue to do stuff like that, and that’s where I feel like I’m going to be able to learn this lesson of whatever is trying to be taught to me. I feel like it’s already been good. 2025 is going to be exciting. I’m not going to be on social, I said, until my next fight (is over), but ideally I can just keep that going. I don’t want to do podcasts, I don’t want to do interviews.”

As he watches Dvalishvili defend his title against fellow standout grappler Umar Nurmagomedov in the UFC 311 co-main event on Jan. 18, O’Malley knows he has work to do to conquer that stylistic matchup.

“I feel like I need to level up – especially to beat Umar, to beat Merab, to beat whoever’s next,” O’Malley said. “To beat these top guys in the world, you’ve got to just be doing everything right, and I feel like I am. I’m doing my rehab, I’m doing my physical therapy, I’m doing everything right. This is another, just a little bit more of a step up.”