Sean O’Malley and Marlon Vera recently went at each other on social media. The two bantamweights also dragged UFC strawweight Gillian Robertson into their conflict after Vera shared a meme of ‘The Savage’, who came away with yet another submission win this past weekend.
The recent Twitter exchange kicked off when ‘Chito’ quote-tweeted a meme showing Robertson lighting up with the caption: “Breaking: Sean O’Malley has officially transitioned to a woman.” The Ecuadorian wrote:
“For a minute, I thought about it.”
While Vera seemingly tried to imply that Sean O’Malley is a trans fighter, ‘Sugar’ seemed confused about ‘Chito’s choice of words. The No.2-ranked bantamweight asked his former foe to clarify his joke, writing:
“Thought about it as in you are interested in transitioning? Or you thought it was me?”
He quickly followed up with:
“#nojudgement”
There’s clearly no love lost between Marlon Vera and Sean O’Malley. The bantamweight duo notably shared the octagon back in 2020, when Vera came away with a controversial TKO win after O’Malley sustained an injury in the first round. This remains the only loss on ‘Sugar’s record.
Vera is coming off a split-decision loss to Cory Sandhagen at UFC San Antonio, which ended his four-fight win streak. Meanwhile, O’Malley is undefeated in his last five outings and looks set to take on the winner of next month’s 135-pound championship bout between Aljamain Sterling and Henry Cejudo.
UFC veteran Josh Thompson on a potential Sean O’Malley vs. Marlon Vera rematch
Considering the long-running bitter rivalry between Sean O’Malley and Marlon Vera, a rematch appears inevitable at some point down the line. However, former UFC lightweight Josh Thompson doesn’t want to see ‘Sugar’ and ‘Chito’ run it back just yet.
In an episode of the Weighing In podcast, Thompson expressed his disinterest in watching them fight again and insisted that the UFC should instead match the Ecuadorian up against former champion Petr Yan:
“Petr Yan and ‘Chito’, That’s a great fight. That’s probably the fight to make. The two of them coming off their losses… I think that’s the perfect matchup because Petr’s not going to really wrestle… He’s very come-forward, boxing-centric, and he’ll throw blows to trade blows.”
Watch the full episode below:
Petr Yan is currently on a three-fight losing slide and last got his hand raised against Cory Sandhagen at UFC 267 in 2021. Despite his losses, Yan remains a top contender in the division, and with Marlon Vera also coming off a defeat, this matchup makes sense.
Vera even called out Yan after his latest defeat.