Undisputed bantamweight champion, Sean O’Malley has made it abundantly clear; as long as pound-for-pound kingpin, Alexander Volkanovski remains the featherweight champion, he has no intention of pursuing a divisional move.
O’Malley, the newly-minted undisputed bantamweight champion, headlined UFC 292 back in August in Boston, Massachusetts – managed to clinch the title with a spectacular second round win over the dominant, Aljamain Sterling, stopping the Uniondale native with a TKO victory.
As for Australian favorite, Volkanovski, the Joe Lopez trainee managed to successfully unify the featherweight titles and retain his slot atop the pound-for-pound tree back in July during International Fight Week, defeating Yair Rodriguez with a ground strikes kncokout win of his own.
Sean O’Malley addresses potential Alexander Volkanovski title clash
And welcoming the possibility of a title fight defense against former-foe, Marlon Vera as soon as December at UFC 296, O’Malley has stressed, however, when it comes to a potential featherweight climb, he wants to wait until Volkanovski is no longer champion before he leaps.
“I would love to [move to featherweight] when Alexander Volkanovski is not the champion,” Sean O’Malley told ThatWasEpic during a recent interview. “That motherf*cker is pound-for-pound best in the world right now.”
“I’m confident I can knock anyone out,” Sean O’Malley explained. “I feel like I can definitely knock Alexander Volkanovski out. It’d be freaking very, very difficult, but I mean, maybe in a year or two if he’s still there, I would do it but I think he’s gonna move up to 155 (pounds). So, it depends who’s champ.”
As for Volkanovski, the New South Wales native has been pegged to defend his featherweight crown against incoming Georgian challenger, Ilia Topuria next, after announcing plans to potentially headline UFC 300 next year in a title fight rematch at lightweight against the incumbent, Islam Makhachev.