Fresh off his stunning knockout win over Thomas Almeida at UFC 260 (see it), Sean O’Malley recently requested a fight against former Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) Bantamweight champion, Dominick Cruz.
Not only that, he wants it to be the co-main event to the possible trilogy fight between Conor McGregor and Dustin Poirier, which is targets for July 2021.
During a recent chant with ESPN’s Ariel Helwani, “The Dominator” spoke about the callout and while he didn’t outright accept the challenge, he didn’t oppose to it, either.
“Am I interested in fighting again? Yes. Do I need to call out one specific person? No. Am I saying no to one specific person? No,” said Cruz before going on to explain why he thinks people would be intrigued with such a match up.
“I can see why that is a matchup people are taking about. He feints a lot, uses his range well and he is tall and long. I feint a lot. I am tall, I am long I use feints. We have a lot of similarities. If he is an up and coming athlete I am sure he has watched a ton of my fights and saw I was successful and I am sure he uses a lot of that stuff,” he added.
Cruz recently got back to his winning ways by defeating Casey Kenney at UFC 259 in March 2021. The victory snapped his two fight win streak — the longest of his career — giving him his first victory since June 2016.
Currently battling some bursitis in his left elbow, “The Dominator” hopes to return to action before the end of the year, and facing “Suga” is definitely a possibility.
“No I am not opposed to it, but, I haven’t talked to (Sean) Shelby or anything. And I am just getting back into training again now. I am nursing bursitis in my left elbow,” said he former 135-pound champion.
“Once that goes away, I will be in it this whole month, we will think of something and get back in there before the end of the year I am going to fight again.”
Currently ranked No. 9 at 135 pounds, Cruz taking out O’Malley could be the shortcut he needs to get back into the championship picture. For “Suga,” taking out a legend such as “The Dominator” finally gets him into the Top 15.