Sean O’Malley is hoping to return in May at UFC 274 in Arizona.
O’Malley, who resides in Arizona, hinted at returning at that event in some prior Twitch live streams, but on Monday, he confirmed that is the plan as long as he’s healthy. O’Malley, of course, hurt his hand in his UFC 269 TKO win over Raulian Paiva and has been rehabbing that ever since.
With O’Malley saying he’s hoping to return at UFC 274, he was asked who he would fight and “Suga” responded saying it will likely be Pedro Munhoz.
“I’m thinking Pedro (Munhoz) but we will see. I’m going to make sure I can fg train full time and my fg s**t feels good,” Sean O’Malley said on his Twitch stream on Monday.
Given UFC 274 is still two months away, there certainly is time for O’Malley to get healthy and take the fight on May 7. Despite ‘Suga’ saying he only wants to fight in Las Vegas, this card gives him a chance to fight at home which he no doubt would like to do.
Sean O’Malley (15-1) is coming off a first-round TKO win over Raulian Paiva at UFC 269 which extended his win streak to three. During that run, he TKO’d Kris Moutinho and knocked out Thomas Almeida to get back into the win column after the TKO loss to Marlon Vera in a fight he hurt his ankle in. He’s currently ranked 12th at bantamweight and is 6-1 in the UFC.
Pedro Munhoz (19-7 and one No Contest) is on a two-fight losing streak after losing back-to-back decisions to Dominick Cruz and Jose Aldo.
The Cruz fight was on the same card as O’Malley’s last fight, and he even dropped Cruz early but the former champ overcame it to get the win. Munhoz is ranked ninth in the UFC’s bantamweight division and holds notable wins over Cody Garbrandt, Jimmie Rivera, Rob Font, and Brett Johns.