Sean O'Malley granted special request from the UFC that only one other fighter has ever had

Sean O'Malley has been granted a special request by the UFC ahead of his huge fight against Marlon Vera.

The big rematch between O'Malley and Vera headlines a stacked UFC 299 card from Miami, Florida.

It will be O'Malley's first defence of his UFC bantamweight title after claiming gold against Aljamain Sterling in his last outing.

'Sugar' will look to exact revenge on Vera, having suffered a TKO defeat in their first meeting at UFC 252 back in August 2020.

And ahead of their championship clash on Saturday, the American fighter will don a special pair of shorts.

O'Malley has taken to social media to reveal that he will be sporting pink neon shorts, instead of the traditional black and gold shorts befitting of a UFC champion.

UFC then confirmed the pink neon shorts, tweeting: "The Suga Show is going pink. @SugaSeanMMA will wear pink shorts in his first bantamweight title defense this weekend at #UFC299."

Under UFC's deal with Venum, it's only the second time a fighter has received customised shorts.

Bryce Mitchell wore camouflage shorts for his UFC 272 bout against Edson Barboza.

O'Malley, who is currently rocking pink and blue hair, is excited to run it back with Vera following their first fight.

"After that first fight, everyone was like, 'You gotta get that rematch, you gotta get that rematch'," he told Ariel Helwani.

"And I said, 'I’ll get that rematch when I want that, when it’s time. When it’s time for that rematch, I’m going to call for it and I’ll get it'.

"I could’ve gotten that rematch whenever I wanted. I was like, it’s not the right time yet. Now is the right time, so I’m just very excited about that fight."

The 29-year-old added: "I don’t want to talk him down too much, because I’ve got to build a fight. But I’m going to smoke this dude."