Multiple former champions have welcomed a fight with Sean O’Malley, but O’Malley isn’t buying their challenges.
Former UFC bantamweight champs Petr Yan (16-3 MMA, 8-2 UFC) and Henry Cejudo (16-2 MMA, 10-2 UFC) recently expressed interest in facing O’Malley, but “The Suga Show” doesn’t think they actually want to fight him.
In his biggest test to date on paper, O’Malley’s fight with Pedro Munhoz at UFC 276 was ruled a no contest after an accidental eye poke in Round 2 rendered Munhoz unable to continue. But O’Malley (15-1 MMA, 7-1 UFC) is looking to move on and sees both Yan and Cejudo as viable options.
“Now I’m ranked No. 9. (The) only other little f*cking weasel on here that doesn’t (have a fight booked) is Petr Yan,” O’Malley said on his YouTube channel. “He said, ‘Hey pink poodle, call me out if you win.’ (The UFC) didn’t give me the mic to be able to do that. I feel like he is just like Henry (Cejudo), dude: all talk. Just on Twitter, you could talk. Henry doesn’t want that fight or else we can make it happen. Petr, same thing.”
O’Malley said that despite not being ranked in the top five, his name value results in a big reward with a win. He points to Marlon Vera as an example, who went on to fight former UFC featherweight king Jose Aldo after scoring a stoppage win over O’Malley at UFC 252.
“When ‘Chito’ beat’ me, I was not ranked and his next fight was Jose Aldo, who literally (had) just fought for the belt,” O’Malley said. “So beating me is not like you just beat some random. You get paid, it’s a big fight, and I’m a title eliminator fighter.”
Sean O’Malley: Petr Yan, Henry Cejudo ‘all talk,’ don’t want to fight me