Sean O'Malley vows to 'climb the ladder' and earn a super fight against Ilia Topuria… 'We'll get that one'
10/29/2024 12:07 PM
Despite having lost his UFC bantamweight title against Merab Dvalishvili at UFC 306, Sean O’Malley is still confident that he will eventually secure a super fight against the featherweight champion, Ilia Topuria.
Sean O’Malley was considered one of the UFC’s biggest active stars when he held the bantamweight title, but after losing it to Merab Dvalishvili this past September at UFC 306, his stock took a hit.
Cementing himself as a superstar with a huge KO win over Max Holloway this past Saturday at UFC 308 was Ilia Topuria, who is now in contention to be awarded the 2024 Fighter of the Year award.
Sean O’Malley vows to get back to a position of a potential fight against Ilia Topuria
‘Suga’ Sean and ‘El Matador’ have historically feuded on social media when they were potentially trying to set up a future super fight.
When both fighters held UFC gold, there was always potential for that to be a future classic, especially considering O’Malley’s size and frame at bantamweight.
Despite that, O’Malley will now need to reclimb the ladder and will likely need to become a UFC champion again before the promotion considers a potential super fight between the two, and he is motivated to do just that.
“God, can you guys imagine if I’d have went out there and knocked out Merab and Ilia just knocked out Max, how big of a super fight that would’ve been, f*ck!” O’Malley angrily admitted in a video on his social media.
“It’s okay, I’m gonna get it back, I’m gonna climb the ladder, climb back up, I want super fights, I want the biggest f*cking fights out there and we’ll get that one, one of these days,” O’Malley continued.
The former bantamweight champion is currently recovering from surgery and has previously stated that he would like to return to action in the first quarter of next year.
‘The Machine’ Dvalishvili was almost certainly set to defend his title against Umar Nurmagomedov next, however, there are rumors that the undefeated Russian will take on Song Yadong before the end of the year, instead of waiting for the Georgian champion to be ready.
Sean O’Malley reveals who he would like to see Ilia Topuria fight next
Although ‘El Matador’s’ next title defense is likely to come against former rival, Alexander Volkanovski, after the two faced off following UFC 308’s main event, O’Malley has revealed who he would like to see Topuria fight next.
“I wanna see Ilia versus, if I could pick, Ilia vs Islam (Makhachev), I’d pick that. That would be such a sick f*cking fight. That would be my pick, I wanna see that one,” O’Malley admitted on The Timbo and Sugar show.
Despite the fact that a fantasy fight between Topuria and Islam Makhachev seems like a stretch at the moment, both fighters have flirted with the idea of it, and the Spaniard champion has made it clear that he wants to eventually move up to 155lbs to take on the Russian.
