PHOENIX — Stay in the fight game long enough and the days start to bleed together. The monotony of the grind, the routine of repetition; it’s enough to dull even the sharpest of memories. But John Moraga can still remember the day he met Sean O’Malley.
It was the summer of 2014, and the previous year Moraga had taken the greatest flyweight who ever lived into the fifth round of a UFC title fight watched by more than 2 million people. Though Moraga lost, he proved he belonged. Tucked away in the quiet mountain town of Flagstaff, Ariz.