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.”
View this post on Instagram
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.
