UFC – Dana: O’Malley Needs More Fights Before Fighting Garbrandt
After his spectacular one-punch knockout win against Eddie Wineland at UFC 250, Sean O’Malley broke into the top 15 of the UFC bantamweight rankings. Following his victory, ‘Sugar’ boldly claimed that he would knock out Cody Garbrandt, who also won via a highlight reel knockout himself on the same card.
In an appearance on The Schmozone Podcast (transcribed by MMA Mania), UFC president Dana White spoke about the 25-year-old and his future.
“He is one of the kids we are focused on and have been since the ‘Contender Series’. He had some issues he had to deal with the last couple of years, which is brutal. But it’s given him a chance to heal up and here we are.”
Sean currently holds a perfect undefeated record of 12-0. In his last two fights, he was able to finish his opponents in the very first round, winning him the ‘Performance of the Night’ on both occasions.
O’Malley’s fighting style and his abilities have created a lot of buzz around the fighter to an extent that Dana even compared him to Conor McGregor asking the interviewers “Who does that remind you of?”
Keeping in mind, O’Malley’s long layoff from the sport, Dana believes that he needs to win a few more bouts before he can step in the cage against a big name opponent like Garbrandt.
“The problem is, you take a Sean O’ Malley…first of all, he has been off for a couple of years, young kid, just coming in, like where does he go from here? You got to give this kid a few more fights before he gets to Cody Garbrandt.
“If he fought and beat Cody Garbrandt, then he’d break into the top five, and very few people in their careers break into the top five.”
Speaking after his latest win at UFC 250, O’Malley guaranteed that he would knockout Garbrandt when they meet inside the Octagon.
“We’ll fight someday. We’ll 100 percent fight someday. He’s still pretty young so I think that’s gonna be a potential big, big fight. That’s a big pay-per-view fight in the next couple of years. He keeps winning, I keep winning, that’s a big f***ing fight.”
Do you agree with Dana White? Does Sean O’Malley need more fights under his belt before he takes on the former champion, Cody Garbrandt?
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