Sean O’Malley senses another opportunity to jump the line and fight for the bantamweight belt again, and all he has to do is beat Song Yadong on January 25th at UFC 324.
“The Suga Show” was in a bad spot just weeks ago, with O’Malley in career limbo after losing two one-sided fights to then-champ Merab Dvalishvili. But then Dvalishvili was dethroned by Petr Yan,
an opponent O’Malley holds a (dubious) win over. And now Sean sees a path back to the title.“When Petr beat Merab, I got a whole new level
… of mental switch, of just hunger,” O’Malley said on his YouTube channel. “I’m gonna go out there and beat Song [Yadong], and [then] me and Petr at the White House. I don’t see any other — and I could be wrong. This is just me thinking out loud. It just makes sense.”
We’re sure it makes sense to O’Malley, but it doesn’t really make that much sense to the rest of the world given he’s 1-2 over the past two years. “Suga” insists he’ll prove himself worthy with his performance against Yadong at UFC 324, the first card of the UFC’s new Paramount+ broadcast deal.
“People right now, ‘You’re coming off two losses, we don’t wanna see that fight’ — tell me that January 25th after I put on a masterclass performance,” he said. “Might be a 15 minute clinic, might be a KO. Tell me that January 25th, ‘I don’t want to see Sean vs. Petr. We want to see Merab vs. Petr.’ You ain’t gonna want to see anyone else other than me vs. Petr at the f–king White House.”
“And if you don’t want to see that? Okay. I’ll sit down, I’ll just chill. If you don’t want to see it, I won’t fight him. Make your opinion after this fight. Tell me you don’t want to see me and Petr run it back.”
That split decision win over Petr Yan certainly gives O’Malley some leverage. That and his popularity, which gives him the Dana White Privilege to even talk like this. Could O’Malley earn a title shot against Petr Yan with an impressive showing over Song Yadong at UFC 324? With the way the UFC is booking things these days: absolutely.
