With his recent title defense, UFC champion Sean O’Malley further cemented his place as one of the most promising stars in the promotion. O’Malley avenged the only loss in his professional career with the belt on the line at UFC 299. Following the win, O’Malley called out a number of big names for mega fights. ‘Sugar’ has his eyes set on the likes of Ryan Garcia and Ilia Topuria. However, it appears that the bantamweight champion has a new target in mind.
O’Malley took to Instagram a few hours back to show off his hand speed. ‘Sugar’ posted a video of him shadow boxing as fast as possible with a caption that said,
“Give me an ez boxing fight first. Someone like Devin Haney.”
The post comes just days after Devin Haney suffered his first and arguably one of the most embarrassing losses of all time in the sport of boxing. Terming Haney as an ‘easy’ fight, O’Malley stated that he would go and fight someone like Ryan Garcia only after securing somewhat of a reputation in boxing.
Well, it seems like ‘Suga’ is respecting Garcia, and he has his reasons to do so. In the build-up to the fight against Haney, Ryan Garcia convinced the whole world that he was not mentally right.
His antics on social media and interviews made fans as well as pundits feel he was distracted from the fight. One such instance was Garcia relentlessly trash talking and chasing a fight against Sean O’Malley while he was in training camp for Devin Haney.
‘King’ went so far as to contact Dana White about the same as well. However, he did not provide an update on whether Dana White responded to his idea. Garcia’s recent performance has only made him a much bigger star in the world of combat sports. Which is a double-edged sword as it makes the fight a lot more difficult to make for O’Malley.
But for ‘Suga’, the plans are very clear- he wants to switch to boxing while earning a handsome paycheck like Conor McGregor.
Sean O’Malley wants to follow Conor McGregor’s footsteps into the world of boxing
Conor McGregor was the first UFC fighter to secure a mega fight in the world of boxing. And most likely, he will not be the last either. In an interview a while back, O’Malley stated that he also wants to earn nine-figure paydays by participating in mega fights, just like McGregor. Unfortunately for Garcia, a few things stand in the way.
Firstly, the UFC will not let him participate in such a fight as there is a long list of fighters waiting to challenge him for the bantamweight belt. Secondly, Ryan Garcia now is a way bigger and more popular fighter than O’Malley, thanks to his recent win. Thus, it will be interesting to see how the situation pans out and if O’Malley gets a boxing match that he has been craving for so long.
