Sean O’Malley is hoping to take on a former champ in July.
Recently Chael Sonnen revealed that former UFC champion Dominick Cruz is hankering to face attention-grabbing bantamweight Sean O’Malley in his next fight. According to O’Malley, the feeling is mutual.
O’Malley, fresh off an odd KO win over Thomas Almeida this month, recently appeared on The Pat McAfee show, where he discussed the potential match up with The Dominator.
“I heard Dominick Cruz texted Chael Sonnen saying he wanted that fight,” said O’Malley (ht bjpenn). “So, I don’t know if Chael got a prank text for a fake Dom or if that’s real. That’s a potential matchup.”
“I know Dustin Poirier tweeted the other day, July 10,” continued O’Malley referring to the rumoured date of Poirier’s trilogy fight with Conor McGregor. “So I think I’m a pretty good co-main event type dude. Dustin vs. Conor, Suga vs. Dominick, I don’t know, that makes sense, that might be it. July, we’ll see. I definitely want to get in there a couple more times this year.”
O’Malley came to the UFC via Dana White’s Contender Series in 2017. A KO on that show earned him a contract, with his full UFC debut being opposite Terrion Ware at the TUF 26 finale.
He beat Ware by unanimous decision and then beat Andre Soukhamthath the following year. In 2018 O’Malley received a suspension from USADA for testing positive for ostarine.
O’Malley’s six month sanction, hip surgery, and then another failed test for ostarine kept him out of action until early 2020. In his return fight, at UFC 248, he TKO’d Jose Alberto Quinonez. Three months later, at UFC 250, he KO’d Eddie Wineland.
Two months after beating Wineland O’Malley ran into Marlon Vera at UFC 252. ‘Chito’ TKO’d O’Malley, handing ‘Suga’ his first ever loss.
Dominick Cruz, who held the UFC batanmweight title between 2010 and 2011 and then again in 2016, returned from a near four-year long hiatus in 2020 to face Henry Cejudo in an attempt to win the title for a third time. He lost to Cejudo by TKO.
Earlier this month Cruz defeated Casey Kenney by split decision. Before allegedly calling out O’Malley, Cruz said he wanted to fight Monster Energy executive Hans Mollenkamp.