Sean O’Malley is just a few weeks away from the most important fight of his career, but the UFC bantamweight champion still has bigger plans ahead.
O’Malley is currently scheduled to defend his undisputed 135-pound title against surging contender Merab Dvalishvili at UFC 306 (better known as Noche UFC) on Sept. 14 from inside The Sphere in Las Vegas, Nevada. It’s expected to be one of the most expensive combat events in UFC history and a true one-of-a-kind experience for fights fans. Luckily, UFC has one of its biggest stars headlining the card.
While O’Malley has just one UFC title defense under his belt the marijuana-smoking champion is easily one of the most popular fighters on the roster today. He has a massive social media following, always delivers with creative content and funny trash talk, and is one of the best knockout finishers throughout any of UFC’s lower weight classes. When it comes to checking off all the boxes, O’Malley is nearly in a league of his own.
Fortunately, “Suga” has no plans of slowing down. While he shoots to become as big of a star as Conor McGregor was (and still is), he also wants to defend his title and challenge the best champions above him. That is something “Notorious” failed to do, but something O’Malley has on his MMA checklist as he aims to become one of the best fighters ever.
“Right now it’s Conor McGregor, 100 percent,” O’Malley said during a recent interview with ESPN. “He’s a dork, but it’s the truth. For me to get to that, I need to go out there and knock out Merab, I go up to [145 pounds], I beat Ilia [Topuria], I beat Max [Holloway], I beat Umar [Nurmagomedov], I’m three fights away from being one of the greatest of all-time, one of the most exciting of all-time. There’s [a] difference.
“No one thinks Conor’s the greatest fighter of all-time. He was lacking skills, lacked title defenses, but entertainment wise, he’s the best in the world. Entertainment wise, he was the best.”
O’Malley, who will enter his 30s this October, boasts an exceptional 10- (1 NC) UFC record with wins over the likes of Aljamain Sterling, Marlon Vera, and Petr Yan. That’s pretty impressive, but the UFC bantamweight king still has a long ways to go before putting his name in the G.O.A.T. discussion.
“Greatest fighter of all-time, Jon Jones, Khabib [Nurmagomedov], Islam [Makhachev], [all] up there,” he explained. “I want to be both. I want to be one of the greatest of all-times, and one of the most entertaining of all-times. That’s my goal.”