The UFC offered ‘Suga’ Sean O’Malley a fight against Frankie Edgar at UFC 268 in New York on November 6th.
O’Malley is one of the UFC’s most electrifying young prospects in the game, but he turned down the fight against ‘The Answer’. The self-proclaimed undefeated fighter didn’t turn the fight down because fighting Edgar didn’t interest him. O’Malley turned it down because did not want to fight in New York City due to the amount of money he would lose to taxes.
“I had a conversation with Sean Shelby a couple days after in person, in Houston at the fights. We’re good now. He didn’t like what I said. I didn’t like what he said. I feel like I’m in a position where if you want me to fight in New York, and I don’t want to fight in New York, I’m not gonna fight in New York. I’m in that position, and I had that conversation, and we’re good now. But yeah, I got offered a fight in New York against Frankie, and I said if Frankie wants to get whooped, he can get whooped in Vegas in December, a month later. They want Frankie to fight in New York, so they gave him ‘Chito’ (Vera). Getting the ‘Suga Show’ against Frankie would’ve been a great fight for me, but I’m not too worried about it.” (H/T MMAJunkie)
It seems as if getting a ranked opponent for ‘Suga’ is the next step up in his career, as it should be. In his last fight, he landed an unheard of “230 total strikes and 177 to the head” against Kris Mouthino (stats via UFC Stats). Moutinho was a fill-in fighter in his first UFC bout. O’Malley insists he is open to fighting Dominick Cruz, anyone inside the top 15, or any person off the street.
O’Malley wants to fight sometime in December after rectifying his relationship with Sean Shelby. The ‘Suga Show’ looks to continue this later this year in Las Vegas.
Do you think Sean O’Malley should have taken the Frankie Edgar fight? Are you excited for the ‘Suga Show’ to resume?