O’Malley: Ngannou Shouldn’t Have ‘Talked S—t’ About Dana White

Here’s up and coming UFC star Sean O’Malley’s view on the recent battle between his promotion and heavyweight champion Francis Ngannou.

If you were to make a bet on whether Francis Ngannou fights in the UFC next, would you take it?

Yeah, neither would we.

The UFC heavyweight champion made it clear through fight week that he felt unrespected and underpaid. And when UFC president Dana White didn’t show up after Ngannou’s win over Cyril Gane at UFC 270 to put the belt around his champ or talk at the post-fight press conference, that was just a continuation of that lack of respect.

There were other messed up stories that came out after, like how the UFC threatened to sue Ngannou’s manager on fight day. The clear message being sent here is don’t expect Dana White or the UFC to pretend everything’s okay if you decide you want to part ways. That’s been quite visible for those who have followed this sport over the past 15 years, and apparently it’s still a lesson new arrivals to the sport like Sean O’Malley are picking up on too.

“I think, dude, if you’re going to go out there and just talk s—t about the boss and the company, you can’t just expect no backlash, right?” O’Malley said in a recent YouTube video. “It makes sense that Dana is running a business, and his heavyweight champion, the one who is the main f—king champ, the baddest dude on planet earth, is just every interview he gets, talking s—t.”

“And I don’t want to say talking s—t in a bad way,” O’Malley added. “I guess he is just talking facts. But it is talking s—t, and you can’t do that to the UFC. You can’t do that to Dana. You can’t do that to your boss. You can, but now Ngannou is not in a great position. Imagine he’s the heavyweight champion of the world, him and Dana have a great relationship. I bet there’s leeway there to make some negotiations, but now it’s not happening.”

O’Malley knows a little bit about talking s—t and getting hit by the disapproval of UFC brass. Back in August of 2021, UFC matchmakers tried to force him to accept a fight on a date his coach was unavailable. He turned the date down, and then got cold shouldered over the situation. He then went on his podcast and said he was being treated ‘like a piece of s—t’ by the UFC, which just steamed their hams even more. Things got resolved, but it’s just one of those rubs that could mysteriously derail an up and coming UFC fighter’s career.

This is a kid who is head and shoulders above 90% of the rest of the UFC roster and he understands exactly how important it is not to rock the boat with the UFC and not to get into fights with UFC president Dana White. He’s trying to walk a fine line, refusing ranked opponents as he continues to be underpaid on a Dana White’s Contender Series contract. That’s the ‘leeway’ he’s been allowed: at this point he can turn down fights because the UFC isn’t paying him enough, and he’s actually one of the lucky few capable of doing that.

For now, at least. We wouldn’t be surprised if O’Malley ends up in a similar position to Francis when contract negotiations come around and the UFC decides he’s either too demanding or too difficult to negotiate with.