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Coach Mendez Backs Sean O’Malley to Win at UFC 306 to Maximize Umar Nurmagomedov’s Next Fight Earnings

Kishore R
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Sean O’Malley Praises Umar Nurmagomedov for Choosing to Fight Instead of Waiting for Title Shot Against Merab

The Nurmagomedov nameplate is sailing high in the UFC. Undefeated Umar Nurmagomedov is on cloud nine following his stellar win against former interim champion, Cory Sandhagen. And now coach Javier Mendez wants his protege to face Sean O’Malley for the title, ultimately picking ‘Suga’ over his opponent Merab Dvalishvili in their September bout.

During an exclusive to Red Corner MMA, the AKA head coach shared his thoughts on the upcoming bantamweight title fight at Vegas’ Sphere. Picking the champion over the challenger, Mendez even got his pupil, Umar, into the equation, saying,

“Of course, I want the biggest bang for the buck for my guys, and its (Sean) O’Malley, O’Malley at the present time is the biggest draw. Him and Umar (Nurmagomedov) would be very interesting.”

 

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Though Mendez did not take anything away from ‘The Machine,’ he chose O’Malley over him just because he wanted a massive payday for Umar. Recognizing the Montana native’s superstardom in the UFC, Mendez envisioned that Umar fighting O’Malley for the belt would net the Dagestani a higher payout.

In the meantime, O’Malley’s coach Tim Welch was also impressed by Umar’s performance and revealed his thoughts on a potential title bout between the Russian and his fighter.

O’Malley’s coach impressed by Umar, envisions a potential fight

Despite starting slow, Umar did more than what he set out to in his first-ever main event bout. The Russian took the fight to the #2 ranked Sandhagen, and even though ‘The Sandman’ did a fantastic job of neutralizing the Dagestani’s wrestling, Umar’s versatile game of kicks and crisp boxing became the decider.

Out-striking the American in all four rounds, the 28-year-old won the biggest fight of his career, taking the #2 spot for himself. Genuinely impressed by his performance, Tim Welch feels like the champ, O’Malley would be hyped to fight Umar. In his exclusive to Submission Radio, ‘Timbo’ sang the Dagestani’s praises, claiming he is well-rounded and a serious problem. However, he insisted that O’Malley is always ready for the biggest challenges, saying,

“For Sean, he always wants the biggest fights that are going to bring the most eyes and the biggest challenge. Right now, Merab. Two undefeated guys and having it be a Nurmagomedov name, that’s a huge, huge challenge and something that would get Sean fired up, because if he KO’d Umar, that would put him on another level again.”

In essence, Welch says that a thumping win against the Russian would take O’Malley places, and elevate his standing considering how big of a threat Umar is.

Post Edited By:Shraman Mitra

About the author

Kishore R

Kishore R

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Kishore is a MMA journalist at The SportsRush with over two years of experience and more than 2000 articles to his name. While he is a qualified engineer, he truly enjoys his time crafting stories from the world of mixed martial arts. Old testament in his MMA education, Kishore picked up the sport watching the highlights of 1989’s Fight of the Year bout between Roberto Duran and Iran Barkley and has since been hooked to the controlled violence this sport is capable of. Following MMA for almost a decade and a half, Kishore has an advanced understanding of its tactical nature and uses his love for storytelling to express it with great effect. But most of all, he just wants to see Tony Ferguson bounce back and showcase his old swagger - “IT’S TONY TIME!”

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