‘She said yes!’ – Unranked UFC bantamweight claims he’s fighting Sean O’Malley

Sean O’Malley, one of the more popular fighters on the UFC roster, admitted recently that he has no interest in taking a big jump in competition without a big jump in pay.

Additionally, ‘Suga’ recently said that he turned down a fight with 8th ranked Frankie Edgar, though he said that was more to do with the event being in New York, where a substantial part of his purse would go towards state taxes.

This week Brian Kelleher, who is not ranked in the bantamweight division, claimed he was in the running to face O’Malley next, with a tweet including the caption ‘She said yes’, complete with an engagement ring emoji.

MMA Fighting’s Mike Heck poured some cold water over ‘Boom’’s claims, though, writing that reports of a fight between Kelleher and O’Malley were “premature”.

O’Malley is coming off a TKO win over Kris Moutinho at July’s UFC 264. Moutinho was a late replacement for Louis Smolka. Prior to that win he KO’d Thomas Almeida.

Those wins came after O’Malley suffered his first pro loss, a TKO at the hands (and elbows) of Marlon Vera at UFC 252 last year. O’Malley had a 12-0 pro career up until that point with UFC wins over Eddie Wineland, Jose Alberto Quinonez and Andre Soukamthath.

Kelleher has gone back and forth between the win and loss column lately, with victories over Dominago Pilarte and Ray Rodriguez and defeats to Ricky Simon and Cody Stamman. He’s 7-5 with the UFC since joining the promotion in 2017.