UFC bantamweight prospect, Jack Shore believes his divisional rival, Sean O’Malley, “definitely” wants to fight the best opponents despite the fact ‘Suga’ says otherwise.
O’Malley caused a stir recently when he admitted he is actively avoiding tough fights at this stage of his career. The 26-year-old explained that his stance was mainly due to his current contract with the UFC which does not reward him for accepting fights against ranked opponents.
During an interview with LowKickMMA, Shore claimed to understand where O’Malley is coming from.
“I get what he’s saying, to an extent,” Shore said. “Obviously, he’s going to get paid the same whether it’s the best in the world or someone unranked.
Ultimately though, Shore says ‘Suga’, like everybody else in the UFC, wants to be the best, and to do that you’ve got to beat the best.
“If they offered a guy who’s ranked 25th or they offer him a guy who’s ranked five – who do you think he’s gonna take? As much as we do what we do to provide for the family and make our money at the same time, of course, he wants to be the best in the world,” Shore said.
“After his last fight, I think he called out Dominick Cruz, Cody Garbrandt, and someone else. So, obviously, he wants to fight those top guys. But, at the same time, he’s a very big draw. So perhaps he’s holding out to get that paycheque that he thinks he’s worth,” Shored added. “I don’t think personally that he doesn’t have desire to fight those top guys. He knows ultimately that’s where he wants to be and that’s the guys he wants to fight. I think he’s just very good at marketing himself.
“You know, the guy he fought last time. If he can make the same money fighting him (Kris Moutinho) or fighting someone like Jose Aldo, I suppose what he’s saying makes a little bit of sense – but at the same time we all want to be the best in the world and we wouldn’t be in the UFC if we didn’t,” Shore concluded. “So, make no mistake, I know he’s good at saying these things but he definitely wants to be fighting those top dogs – that’s a fact!
Do you agree with Jack Shore? Does Sean O’Malley want to fight the best?