UFC bantamweight champion Sean O’Malley believes a big fight with Ilia Topuria could be on the horizon.
O’Malley runs things back with Marlon Vera in the UFC 299 headliner March 9 in Miami. Meanwhile, Topuria challenges featherweight champion Alexander Volkanovski in the UFC 298 main event a few weeks earlier on Feb. 17 in Anaheim, Calif.
O’Malley (17-1 MMA, 9-1 UFC) baited Topuria (14-0 MMA, 6-0 UFC) into an exchange on X in which Topuria suggested that the UFC isn’t interested in the two of them fighting each other.
I offered to fight you but the UFC told me that you are only good for fighting in teenagers’ places, because that’s your only fan base .Our fight will never happen. After fighting Volk I will fight Conor. and you will come as a fan boy. After seeing your ppv numbers the only… https://t.co/bb0F5uAIq1
— Ilia Topuria (@Topuriailia) January 4, 2024
“I offered to fight you but the UFC told me that you are only good for fighting in teenagers’ places, because that’s your only fanbase. Our fight will never happen. After fighting Volk I will fight Conor. and you will come as a fan boy. After seeing your PPV numbers the only thing I can offer you is that you fight in the preliminaries of my card.”
I can’t care less about you kid. Now the PPV king needs to sleep! Stay safe and save ur money… GN! https://t.co/1u2q4zlFVX
— Ilia Topuria (@Topuriailia) January 4, 2024
“I can’t care less about you kid. Now the PPV king needs to sleep! Stay safe and save ur money… GN!”
O’Malley is baffled why Topuria wouldn’t be interested in fighting him.
“Something I’ve never understood: I’m clearly, whether you guys f*cking agree or not, UFC thinks so, I’m potentially a massive star,” O’Malley said on his “TimboSugarShow” podcast. “I’m a star already, and if Ilia thinks I’m an easy fight, who’s a bigger fight than me? Conor would be a bigger fight, yes. Conor is not going to fight Ilia. Conor literally doesn’t know (who he is) – maybe he does.
“Ilia’s f*cking sick. I like watching him fight. He’s very dangerous, very skilled. But if I’m an easy fight for these guys, I don’t know why. It was back in the day when I was calling out Dominick Cruz, calling out Cody Garbrandt. They were like, ‘He sucks. I’m not going to fight him.’ Why not fight the guy, like easy fight with a big mouth and a big name? Why not? I don’t get it.”
Despite Topuria’s reluctance, if both emerge victorious in their title fights, O’Malley thinks a showdown between them is inevitable.
“If he goes out there and beats Volk, and I go out there and beat ‘Chito,’ that fight’s happening next,” O’Malley said. “That’s just what’s happening.”
For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 299.
Sean O’Malley eyes champ-vs.-champ showdown with Ilia Topuria – if he claims UFC gold
