Sean O’Malley recently had the most impressive performance of his career against Petr Yan at UFC 280.
‘Sugar’ went toe-to-toe with the former UFC bantamweight champion and won the fight via split decision, although many felt that Yan was robbed.
O’Malley entered the fight ranked No.11. But ‘Sugar’ leapfrogged the entire division with his victory over Yan and now sits as the top contender at 135lbs.
Sean O’Malley is one of the most captivating fighters in the UFC, and ‘Sugar’ believes that he might finally be the biggest star in the promotion.
‘Sugar’ spoke to Marc Raimondi of ESPN MMA recently and discussed his potential to become the UFC’s next pay-per-view superstar:
“I believe I’m pretty much the biggest star in the UFC right now, or have the potential to be and I’m right there. I could go main event a pay-per-view and do pretty good right now. It’s been a long time coming but it also happened somewhat fast.”
Sean O’Malley’s sudden rise in the rankings puts him smack-dab in the middle of the title picture. But with former double champion Henry Cejudo appearing to be making a return to the octagon, it is unclear as to who will be granted the next title shot against Aljamain Sterling.
Watch the interview below (quotes from 1:15):
Sean O’Malley believes Aljamain Sterling could be avoiding a fight with Henry Cejudo
Sean O’Malley could be in line for the next shot at the UFC bantamweight title. Reigning champion Aljamain Sterling appears to be interested in fighting ‘Sugar’ in his next bout.
But the possible return of former UFC champion Henry Cejudo means that he may jump the queue and be granted a fight with Sterling. ‘Sugar’ believes that Cejudo would deserve an automatic title shot but thinks that ‘Funk Master’ may be avoiding a matchup with ‘Triple C’.
O’Malley spoke about a potential 135lbs title fight on the latest episode of the TimboSugarShow:
“There’s a lot of moving pieces. Henry seems like he wants to come back, it seems like he does. To be honest, it kind of seems like Aljo is avoiding the Henry Cejudo fight. He wants to fight me for the money.”
Watch the video below (quotes from 5:55):