Sean O’Malley is currently on the shelf after both having a hip surgery and while serving a six month suspension from the Nevada State Athletic Commission (NSAC).
While the long layoff may affect some fighters in different ways, it has allowed O’Malley the chance to build his video game brand through Twitch.
“Back-to-back surgeries and in the middle of a suspension for something I didn’t do,” O’Malley said on The MMA Hour. “I’ve been [trying to be] super positive. I think a big thing right now is I’m super into gaming and I think that’s helped me a lot. I see people are always like, ‘Do you even train?’ and stuff like that, but honestly I haven’t really been able to train the last month because of this hip issue. I just got off crutches last week. So I’ve just been playing Fortnite, building my Twitch channel, keeping busy that way. I use my Instagram as a business, so I feel like I’ve been keeping busy in the industry. I’ve been doing a lot of kinda fashion pictures and talking to some fashion, so I’d like to dip my shoes in the fashion industry. I like to be in the entertainment business, so I’m excited to come back, and at the end of the day fighting is what I truly love to do and that’s what I really love doing, so I’m excited to be able to get back in the gym and start training.”
O’Malley is able to compete again on March 6 of next year, as his suspension is retroactive to the date of the drug test failure.
The UFC star isn’t just building a brand playing video games, but he is also making big bucks in the process.
“Right now I’m making around $4,500 a month through gaming,” O’Malley said. “I just do it because I love it. I’ve been playing video games since I was a little kid, and I’ve had a couple people say, ‘Why don’t you stream? Why don’t you stream?’ I was like, ‘No one wants to watch me play.’ And I’ve been streaming for like nine months now and there’s some loyal fans in there. I only get 50, 60 viewers at a time, so if fans have questions, they come in there, and there’s some kids there that literally every time I go live, they get a notification on their phone and they’re in there talking, saying, ‘Hey, what’s up?’ I have a good relationship with my subscribers. They come in there, subscribe, and I’m in the UFC video game now so I was playing that a couple times. I’ve seen some people on Twitter like, ‘Why would we pay to play with you?’ It’s not like that. It’s something I do — it’s not just fun, it’s work too. I put a lot of hours into that to try to build that channel, so it’s work really at the end of the day.”
Fans can check out O’Malley’s Twitch channel for themselves by clicking here.
