Sean O’Malley has reacted to Petr Yan’s big win at UFC 333, which should have almost secured him a bantamweight title next. Cageside Song Yadong instead stole the spotlight and now “Suga” has to justify himself as the No. 1 contender.
Spirits were high on O’Malley’s stream after Yan beat Merab Dvalishvili 48-47 on all three judges’ scorecards (highlights here). Dvalishvili holds two wins over O’Malley. O’Malley wins over Yan. So Yan’s win was great for O’Malley. But then “Suga” went unmentioned after the fight. Color commentator Daniel Cormier suggested Yadong as a potential next fight.
“I beat him like 6 months ago,” said an exasperated O’Malley. “I’m fighting Petr Yan next, I don’t care. It’s going to be the biggest, biggest fight in UFC history.”
“Song Yadong was flown out to Abu Dhabi, they can assume Merab will win,” O’Malley said later. “I was in a mess of what I had to do. I’m in Florida, I’m at a PrizePicks event, I couldn’t get there … But yeah, Song was out there. I assume he was out there in case Merab won. DC kind of put it down.”
“I’m surprised Petr didn’t challenge me. I don’t know why. It’s the biggest fight. In his eyes, I challenged Chito (Vera) after I won the bell game. I’m like, give me the easiest king fight ever. Never. But … I’ll take it. You know, I’ll take it, but if I can fight Chito,
While O’Malley was hoping that UFC CEO Dana White might endorse him next for the title, that didn’t happen.
“Me and the matchmakers were texting all night about Song Yadong and O’Malley,” White said. UFC 333 post-fight press conference. “Both are obviously great options, and it’s a good problem to have to figure out which of the two might be next.”
While O’Malley has wins over both Yan and Yadong, “The Karate Kid” has been more active since O’Malley’s loss, defeating Deiveson Figueiredo and Umar Nurmagomedov in the main events. You could certainly argue that O’Malley’s only win over Aiemann Zahab in June doesn’t seem all that impressive by comparison.
So who’s next? Who do you want to see next? Let us know in the comments.
