Sean O’Malley wasn’t about to let a fan spend the entire walkout roasting his teammate. While waiting to walk Tommy McMillen into the Octagon at Noche UFC, ‘Suga’ revealed that he eventually threw his hat at a particularly loud spectator who had been hurling abuse at ‘Tommy Gun’ for several minutes.

The former UFC bantamweight champion recalled the bizarre little confrontation while describing what happened in the walkway before the pair entered the arena. With the crowd sitting directly above them, one fan kept laying into McMillen, and Sean O’Malley eventually decided he’d heard enough.

“Walking out to the arena, we’re standing in the back,” O’Malley said on his YouTube channel. “We’re standing in the walkway, and for, like, probably two minutes, and you can, like, as the end of [Marwan] Rahiki‘s song’s playing, and you can see the fans; the fans are over the top of you.

“This one f—— drunk cowboy guy was just, ‘F— you, Tommy, you f—– p—-,’ for like two minutes. I grabbed my hat, I balled it up, and I got it into a nice ball. And right when we walk, I smoked that motherf—– right in the face with it. I hope someone has a video of it.”

The former bantamweight champion admitted that he briefly felt bad after noticing the fan later trying to reassure him.

“And part of me kind of felt bad,” he continued. “Because, like, I looked up at one point, and he’s like, ‘You’re cool, you’re okay,’ like, to me.”

“Yeah, just f— off. So he was just sitting there, ‘F— you, Tommy.’ I balled my hat up. I told Tim [Welch], ‘I almost smoked this motherf——.’”

The whole thing was even funnier considering Tommy McMillen’s team had already made headlines earlier in fight week, when the fighter threw a Twinkie at one of Marwan Rahiki’s coaches during a confrontation at the fighter hotel.

So, naturally, security wasn’t taking any chances this time. Sean O’Malley explained that the entire team was searched before leaving the locker room, even though he hadn’t planned on throwing anything at the crowd.

“You know, it’s funny about that,” he added. “Tommy threw that Twinkie at the coach. So, before we walked out to the arena, before we walked out from our locker room, they had security pat us down. They were like, ‘Hey guys, we need to pat you down.’

“And I didn’t plan on throwing my f—— hat, right? So they pat us down. We have nothing; nothing’s getting thrown. And then this f—– guy… I was gonna give it to a fan.”

‘Suga’ was in McMillen’s corner for his featherweight bout against Marwan Rahiki at Noche UFC this past Saturday. It was McMillen’s second fight in just two months, and the 28-year-old added another memorable performance to his resume, picking up his third UFC win since earning a contract.

The fight was one of the card’s most entertaining matchups, with Jean Silva vs. Jose Delgado serving as the featherweight headliner. But the tension between McMillen and Rahiki’s teams had been building all week, so the Twinkie incident and O’Malley’s hat-throwing response felt like yet another episode in a rivalry that clearly wasn’t staying inside the Octagon.

Sean O’Malley could face consequences for this incident

While Sean O’Malley’s response was obviously nowhere near as serious as a physical attack, that doesn’t mean it couldn’t catch the UFC’s attention if footage eventually surfaces.

Athletic commissions may also take an interest, especially when a fighter makes contact with a spectator during a walkout and the moment ends up on a major broadcast.

Just ask Arman Tsarukyan. At UFC 300, the lightweight contender got into a high-profile confrontation with a fan while walking out for his title eliminator against Charles Oliveira. After the fan aggressively gestured and flipped him off, ‘Ahalkalakets’ lunged over the security barricade and threw a punch.

The Nevada Athletic Commission didn’t exactly brush off the Tsarukyan incident, saying it “could have been catastrophic for everyone involved.” So, the lightweight contender was ultimately fined $25,000 and suspended for nine months.

Sean O’Malley’s situation is obviously different. He says he threw a rolled-up hat, not a punch, and there’s no indication that anyone was seriously hurt. Still, if footage emerges, the UFC or an athletic commission could theoretically take a closer look, particularly if the fan was injured or the incident is deemed a breach of event security rules.

And with the former Bantamweight champion not actually competing that night, the UFC may have a little more room in deciding how it wants to handle the situation.

Sean O’Malley’s last fight came at UFC Freedom 250 on June 14, 2026, when he stopped Aiemann Zahabi with a second-round knockout. And after that win, he made it pretty clear that his next move would depend on one thing: how much the UFC was willing to pay him.

“Honestly, it comes down to pay,” he told Megan Olivi in a Paramount interview. “I’m not gonna — I think that’s kind of what it comes down to.

“If I’m gonna get paid championship money to fight a championship-level guy next, I’ll do it. If not, I want the championship money. I want that back.”

‘Suga’ started 2026 on the outside looking in at the bantamweight title picture after dropping back-to-back fights to Merab Dvalishvili. But Petr Yan’s win over ‘The Machine’ last December may have opened the door for Sean O’Malley to work his way back toward another title shot.

The 31-year-old has since picked up wins over Song Yadong in January and Aiemann Zahabi in June, putting himself back in the contender conversation. A rematch with Petr Yan is reportedly one of the options O’Malley likes, but ‘Suga’ has made his stance on a return pretty clear: he wants championship-level money before stepping back into the Octagon.

For now, though, his latest UFC-related controversy has nothing to do with who he might fight next. It could, however, end up having a say in when he makes his return.