White: It’s Too Soon For O’Malley vs Garbrandt

Photo by Mike Roach/Zuffa LLC

Sean O’Malley upped his win streak to 12 straight to start his mixed martial arts (MMA) career at UFC 250 a little over a week ago after knocking out Eddie Wineland in the very first round in Las Vegas, Nevada (see it again here).

And it was a welcomed sight to see, I’m sure, for Dana White and Co., as “Suga” is someone the promotion isn’t shy about wanting to promote and groom as a potential next superstar.

“He is one of the kids we are focused on and have been since the ‘Contender Series,’” said White during a recent interview on The Schmozone Podcast. “He had some issues he had to deal with the last couple of years, which is brutal. But it’s given him a chance to heal up and, here we are.”

Winning his firs four fights inside the Octagon and seeing the love he’s getting from the higher ups at UFC has obviously put a huge target on O’Malley’s back, which is why several Bantamweights have taken the chance to call him out in hopes of being the one to derail his train.

“Who does that remind you of?” asked White, an obvious reference to Conor McGregor, who at one time — and still is to a certain extent — the man everyone wanted to face inside the eight-sided cage.

After his big win at UFC 250, Sean decided to take some jabs at former division champion, Cody Garbrandt, who also scored a massive knockout victory over Raphael Assuncao the same night. Claiming that his KO was much better than “No Love’s” prompted a small back-and-forth between the two on social media.

But if you think they two are on a collision course for a potential showdown, White wants you to pump the brakes.

“The problem is, you take a Sean O’ Malley…first of all he has been off for a couple of years, you kid, just coming in, like where does he goes from here? you got to give this kid a few more fights before he gets to Cody Garbrandt.

“If he fought and beat Cody Garbrandt, then he’d break into the top five, and very few people in their careers break into the top five.”

In a separate interview with TMZ Sports, O’Malley himself talked about a potential fight against Cody, though he acknowledges that it likely won’t happen for a while.

“We’ll fight some day. We’ll 100 percent fight some day. He’s still pretty young so I think that’s gonna be a potential big, big fight. That’s a big pay-per-view fight in the next couple of years. He keeps winning, I keep winning, that’s a big fucking fight.”

For now, we have a suggestion as to who “Suga” should face next, and you can find out who by clicking here.