Sean O’Malley thinks he’s the star of the show at UFC 280.
Now that Sean O’Malley has gotten off his UFC rookie contract, the top ten bantamweight is looking for big fights that can get him a title shot in one of the UFC’s more interesting divisions.
After an ho-hum no contest with Pedro Munhoz last time out, O’Malley has booked a fight with former champion Petr Yan. That fight is scheduled for UFC 280 at Abu Dhabi’s Etihad Arena.
The event is due to be headlined by Charles Oliveira vs. Islam Makhachev for the vacant UFC lightweight title. It is also expected that UFC bantamweight champion Aljamain Sterling will defend his title against T.J. Dillashaw on the card.
O’Malley talked about his latest booking on his YouTube channel. There he said that he’s most interesting bantamweight on the card. Furthermore, he suggested that Sterling be very grateful that the ‘Suga Show’ will be part of this event.
“I think this is going to be the first time Aljo gets pay-per-view points, because he’s defending his belt, which is absolutely fucked,” O’Malley said (ht MMA Fighting). “He owes me like 50 percent of those. The UFC basically said when they announced my fight, they’ve seen the interaction and engagement of social and everything, the thing just went boom [gestures straight up]. My fight is the most hyped fight on that card. I’m not taking anything away from Charles vs. Islam, that’s going to be a sick fight, but me vs. Petr? It’s just such an interesting fight.”
“No one else in the Top-10 — everyone was booked,” O’Malley added. “I came out of that fight telling the UFC I want to fight and they were like, ‘Alright, Petr’s the only one.’ Petr said if you win, call me out and we’ll make it happen. Petr wanted it, I wanted it, the UFC’s not going to not make that fucking fight. That fight’s happening. I go out there and faceplant Petr in Abu Dhabi, I’m a superstar. That’s what it is.”
O’Malley continued on to say that he was excited to be facing Yan and that he believes the Russian will bring out the best in him.
“I think I will rise to the occasion, because I haven’t gotten to show what I’m really fucking capable of because I haven’t fought guys that have brought it out of me. So yeah, I’m excited about this. I think a lot of people are going to be obviously excited and surprised.”
O’Malley made his way to the UFC via the Contender Series in 2017. He started his Octagon career with five straight wins before suffering a TKO loss to Marlon Vera at UFC 252 in 2020.
Since then he’s stopped Thomas Almeida, Kris Moutinho and Raulian Paiva.