Sean O’Malley lost his bantamweight title to Merab Dvalishvili. The Georgian is looking out for his first title defense, and rising contender Umar Nurmagomedov is next in line. The cousin of Khabib Nurmagomedov earned the title shot after defeating Cory Sandhagen. However, is this matchup big enough to put the two together as a PPV main event? Here is what O’Malley and his team think about it:
Sean O’Malley recently sat down for a conversation with coach Tim Welch on another episode of TimboSugarShow. During their conversation, they brought up the potential showdown between Merab Dvalishvili and Umar Nurmagomedov for the bantamweight title. According to Team O’Malley, this matchup would not do numbers that are worthy of a main event.
Do you main event Merab vs Umar? I think Umar has a lot of potential… No matter what I say, ‘You’re a hater’. I’m trying to look at this from the UFC’s point of view.
Sean O’Malley via TimboSugarShow
Rather, they discussed the possibility of the UFC putting him as a co-main event on a bigger undercard. Welch also pointed out that it depends on whether the UFC wants to put the two together for a main-event showdown. Or do they have options to choose from in the division? A showdown with the Georgian champion would mean a title fight, automatically putting it on the card as a main event.
Dvalishvili holds a dominant victory over not only Sean O’Malley but top-ranked fighters like Petr Yan and Henry Cejudo. On the other hand, Umar Nurmagomedov brings the aura of the undefeated Nurmagomedov lineage. After beating Cory Sandhagen at UFC on ABC 7, he now sits at #2, just under O’Malley in the division rankings.
UFC stars Sean O’Malley and Conor McGregor drew significant attention with their verbal back and forth on social media. However, that rivalry has taken a surprising shift. McGregor recently expressed a more respectful and supportive tone toward O’Malley.
McGregor had earlier been dismissive of O’Malley. However, he made a change in attitude clear during his recent live stream. There he said he wanted to see O’Malley back in the octagon and reclaim his title. This was a stark contrast to McGregor’s previous statements. O’Malley’s response to McGregor’s unexpected show of support was brief.
What is life?
Sean O’Malley via TimboSugarShow
O’Malley is currently sidelined due to injury. However, he was pretty vocal about how he was on track to become an even bigger star in the UFC than McGregor. That obviously did not sit well with the Irish superstar. This led to months of back-and-forth exchanges of insults and publicly taking shots at each other’s shortcomings. Now, it has gone a complete 180.
