UFC bantamweight champion Sean O’Malley has mapped out his next two fights, including his return to the boxing ring.
‘Suga’ is one of the sport’s biggest rising stars, and has defended his 135lb title once after winning the belt last summer against Aljamain Sterling. He avenged his sole loss to Marlon ‘Chito’ Vera at UFC 299 last month, drawing a top five gate for the promotion in the process.
O’Malley’s bantamweight division is one of the most competitive in the sport, with a number of top challengers regularly emerging. Of the top 15 in the UFC’s 135lb weight class the American has fought just three as yet in his career.
Sean O’Malley could face Ilia Topuria in two-belt super-fight
One option for O’Malley is a super-fight with recently-crowned featherweight champion Ilia Topuria, who dethroned long-standing 145lb king Alexander Volkanovski earlier this year. Such a fight would see the 29-year-old move up in weight and pursue a rare two-belt feat in the promotion.
Topuria believes that his rival must first defend his belt regularly in order to earn a chance to move to a new weight class. But should he do that, the Georgian-born fighter reckons it could be one of the sport’s biggest nights.
“If he dominates his weight class, you have to give him the chance to move up to the next weight division,” Topuria said on The MMA Hour. “But right now, it doesn’t make any sense because he has a guy who is a No. 1 contender who really deserves the shot, Merab. And I truly believe that [Merab]’s going to beat him.”
Sean O’Malley called out for boxing crossover by Ryan Garcia
Another option that has emerged for O’Malley is a move into the boxing ring, where he could face super-lightweight star Ryan Garcia in a massive crossover bout. However, this would require both men to make such a meeting undeniable a la Conor McGregor vs Floyd Mayweather, which the MMA star believes will take a few more fights.
Speaking on his TimboSugarShow podcast, O’Malley said: “They told me you can do a boxing fight, 100 percent, if it makes us enough money. So the option’s there, it just has to be able to make enough money. But Ryan being a f***ing freak like that, you need two A-sides to make a f***ing Floyd-Conor fight.”
Garcia has shared a mocked up fight poster showing the pair together in a ring and declared that he would “destroy” his rival. He even threatened to do the bout in the cage, which would be an unprecedented move for such a crossover.
Sean O’Malley declares that he will fight Merab Dvalishvili and Ryan Garcia in next two outings
In a new tweet, O’Malley has seemingly confirmed that his next two fights will be in different disciplines. First, he claims, he will take on top contender Dvalishvili, who is a close friend and teammate of Aljamain Sterling, from whom he took the title at UFC 292.
He wrote that “After I KO Merab I’m boxing Ryan”, along with a handshake emoji seemingly indicating that the fights are legitimate. He faces a stern test in Dvalishvili, who has run through the division and strung together three consecutive wins against former world champions in Jose Aldo, Petr Yan and Henry Cejudo.
Dvalishvili had a cheeky response to O’Malley’s tweet, joking that he will be taking his rival’s place in that boxing crossover after he lands the stoppage win. He wrote: “The KO will be coming from me so I guess I will be boxing Ryan next??!! #UFCNoche”
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