UFC fighter Sean O’Malley has high ambitions for his career: surpass superstar Conor McGregor both in status and in career earnings. McGregor earned over $180 million in 2021 on his way to being named the highest-paid athlete by Forbes that year, with a majority of his earnings coming from the sale of his stake in his whisky brand Proper No. Twelve Irish whiskey to Proximo Spirits. Unlike McGregor and alcohol, O’Malley has plans to reach his goal through cannabis.
O’Malley is on the record as a huge advocate for cannabis, saying it helps him relax and recover after tough training sessions in addition to using it to wind down. He has previously announced the creation of his own signature cannabis strain, Suga Show OG, which is a hybrid between Lemonhead and OG92 according to O’Malley. The custom strain premiered at the UFC 222 afterparty, where O’Malley made his official UFC debut. He also holds an ambassador role with Hempworx as well as brand deals with King Palm and Dr. Dabber.
“That’s definitely the plan—to become as big as Conor and then further. The UFC has grown a lot since Conor’s been the man, so that just gives me more eyeballs to sell more pay-per-views, sell more merch and just become bigger,” said O’Malley. “Conor did his whiskey—$100 million or whatever he sold it for. That’s going to be my $100 million venture: getting into cannabis with the Suga strain.”
O’Malley’ is far from the only UFC fighter to advocate for the use of cannabis, but recent relaxations of the rules have made it easier for him and other fighters to grow and promote their own cannabis or CBD brands and products. UFC fighters Nick and Nate Diaz may be the most well-known cannabis users and advocates in the MMA world, although they have had a different experience than some of the fighters who have come up since the UFC and U.S. Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) made changes to their anti-doping policies in 2021 and announced fighters will no longer be punished for testing positive for THC at all.
Former UFC fighter Brendan Schaub said he thinks O’Malley should team with the Diaz brothers as he believes the fighters who are the most associated with cannabis would be able to do well in the industry and in a sport where the fans have been found to consume cannabis more often.
“I believe ‘Sugar’ Se?n could make ? lot of money from this,” Schaub said on his weekly podcast, The Schaub Show. “I c?n’t believe no Diaz brothers strain has been developed … Because the Diaz [brothers] and ‘Sugar’ Se?n could do something special if they got together. And I don’t know anyone who wouldn’t be interested in hiring them.”
Previous rules only tested athletes for cannabis while in-competition, which is defined by the USADA as “the period commencing at 11:59 pm on the day before a competition in which the athlete is scheduled to compete through the end of such competition and the sample collection process related to such competition. WADA (World Anti-Doping Agency) may approve alternative definitions for particular sports.”
“It’s really, as with everything we do with this program, it’s science-based,” said UFC senior vice president of athlete health and performance Jeff Novitzky. “Especially in the pandemic era, we’ve had all these issues with fighters and taking fights last minute and then ending up with positive in-competition marijuana results and we always follow up on these — ‘when did you use?’ It always was the case that the use was days if not weeks out from the fight. I’ve always been interested in this and pushing for some of these changes but it definitely accelerated our look into it.”
