LAS VEGAS — The UFC's one-of-one event at the Sphere in Las Vegas is built around Montana's own Sean O'Malley, the UFC bantamweight champ.
At the UFC Apex in Las Vegas on Wednesday, the UFC 306 media day got underway, as most of the fighters on the card — including O'Malley — met with the media to discuss the upcoming event and its gravity.
"This is what I wanted, something like this," O'Malley said. "Obviously, we didn't know the Sphere was even a thing at those times. But I wanted one-of-one kind of moments. And this is it."
In the first press conference of the week for UFC 306, O'Malley's star power took center stage, but with all of the pageantry surrounding the event, O'Malley's focus is on one thing.
"The Sphere is going to be cool for everyone else but me," the Helena native said. "For me, it's tunnel vision. I'm walking to the cage. I'm doing what I have to do. I'll enjoy the show after. I don't let myself kind of think about all that."
O'Malley fielded a range of questions on Wednesday, from the Sphere, to his drawing power, big boxing fights, Conor McGregor, his opponent in Merab Dvalishvili and more.
But also, the target is fully on O'Malley's back now that he's been champ for over a year, a mindset he's had before he even won the belt.
"Before I was champ, I told myself, I need to live like I'm the champ," O'Malley said. "As far as what I'm doing, training, what I'm doing outside the gym, I need to live like a champion if I want to become a champion. So I've been doing it for a while, train, recover, (Call of Duty), train. It's a very basic lifestyle for the most part."
O'Malley also answered questions about returning to his home state of Montana a few times in the last year, from a celebration at both Washington-Grizzly Stadium in Missoula, and at a Town Pump sponsorship in his hometown of Helena.
"Felt good to go back home and be celebrated," he said. "Montana's, you know, born and raised there, it kind of molded me as a fighter. It's funny, just going to places like my hometown, and, you know, seeing high schoolers stand in line to get a picture with me, like I would have been standing in line to see someone that had made it from hometown.
"So I saw a lot of my younger selves in those guys. So, yeah, it was cool."
It's a big stage for O'Malley on Saturday, one where he's ready to perform.
"Each fight you get to go and perform under the UFC platform is a huge benefit, like there's just no eyeballs anywhere else like the UFC," O'Malley said. "So for me to be able to go there and build myself from when I started to now, it's like every fight, I become a little bit more popular, little bit more popular. And so it's a huge benefit doing that under the UFC."
