Sean O’Malley fired back at Ryan Garcia after the former interim WBC lightweight champion made the bold claim that he would hand ‘Sugar’ an ass-whoopin’ in his own sport.
Garcia – who is scheduled to challenge WBC super lightweight titleholder Devin Haney on April 20 — ruffled some feathers during an appearance on The MMA Hour with Ariel Helwani, claiming that he would “destroy” the UFC’s bantamweight king in a proposed crossover clash.
“I’ll beat his ass in MMA guaranteed,” Garcia said. “I’m a natural, you don’t understand. I’m a natural wrestler. I just beat my security that’s a wrestler, I beat him. I’m strong and I’ve got crazy conditioning. … I will come with everything I have and I will destroy Sean O’Malley. In the UFC.”
Ryan Garcia: "I will destroy Sean O’Malley. In the UFC. I’ve already sent text messages to Dana [White]"
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— MMA Fighting (@MMAFighting) February 26, 2024
It didn’t take long for word to get back to Sean O’Malley.
“Buddy. Brother. I would kill you within minutes,” O’Malley said on his TimboSugarShow podcast. “It’s just not even realistic.
“It’s crazy how stupid and delusional that is. I wonder if people think that when I call out boxers though. Is that the same kind of thing? I mean, it is a little bit crazy when I call out boxers. A little bit. Not a ton. Not a 100 percent crazy. A little bit. But when he boxers say they want to fight in MMA, 100 percent crazy.” (h/t MMA Fighting).
Sean O’Malley would neutralize Ryan Garcia with his kickboxing arsenal
Historically, boxers have not always fared well when attempting to cross over into the world of mixed martial arts. The most notorious example is James Toney’s ill-advised fight with Octagon icon Randy Couture at UFC 118. ‘The Natural’ quickly took Toney down to the mat and submitted him in the first round.
The fight went pretty much how fight fans expected it to go, but O’Malley doesn’t believe that replicating Couture’s strategy will be necessary. Instead, ‘Sugar’ would like to put his kickboxing skills to work should the hypothetical showdown come to fruition.
“I don’t need to take him down — I mean, I could take him down and choke him, but it’s like, I would kick him in the f*cking body,” O’Malley added. “I would kick his little sticks. Whatever the f*ck I wanted to him,” O’Malley said. “I could box him with MMA gloves. It’s a different sport just with those little MMA gloves. The distance is different.
“It was cute. I could beat him and Devin Haney in the same night back-to-back in a fight. It’s just not competitive. Pure delusion.”
On Saturday, March 9, Sean O’Malley is scheduled to defend his 135-pound crown for the first time against the only man to hand him a loss inside the Octagon, Marlon ‘Chito’ Vera.