Several fans were shocked when the current UFC bantamweight champ, Sean O’Malley, decided to call out the current UFC featherweight champ, Ilia Topuria, after his first title defense victory at UFC 299. Most of them expected that ‘Sugar’ would be pretty interested in fighting the #1 ranked UFC bantamweight, Merab Dvalishvili since they also had a background story. This is why O’Malley received a huge backlash for allegedly ducking ‘The Machine’. However, ‘Sugar’ recently uploaded another episode of ‘TimboSugarShow‘ to his YouTube channel where he addressed all such allegations.
The UFC 299 presented an enthralling main-event fight between O’Malley and Marlon ‘Chito’ Vera. The Montana native put on a show of his superb striking capabilities to win a rightful decision. Generally, UFC champions lock horns with the top contenders in their division first. If they manage to clear them out, only then do they move up a weight class to challenge the champion.
‘Sugar’s’ intention of challenging Topuria just after a single title defense at bantamweight may have annoyed the fans. But he implied that he was going for a tougher challenge by selecting Topuria. This is why O’Malley counted the ‘ducking Dvalishvili’ allegations as baseless. His words indicated that he would have no problems with a fight against Dvalishvili since he was ready to fight an even tougher fighter at featherweight. O’Malley said,
“It’s so crazy that people think I’m ducking Merab, but I’m calling out Ilia. I don’t get where they see… Ilia’s scary. Merab’s a dangerous fighter, very well could fuc*ing beat me.”
O’Malley’s words made it apparent that he doesn’t take Dvalishvili lightly as well. After ‘The Machine’s’ superb performance at UFC 298, it also wouldn’t be pretty intelligent for O’Malley to underestimate him. But an ‘X’ update from ‘Sugar’ a few days back hinted that he will probably follow the way shown by the fans now.
UFC fans may be delighted the by recent X update from Sean O’Malley
O’Malley may have responded to the allegations made by fans in his latest YouTube video. But it wasn’t his first response. ‘Sugar’ was probably aware of the fact that fans were deriding him for calling out Topuria instead of the most deserving contender in his division. This is probably why he tried to fix things with an ‘X’ update, stating about his intentions to fight ‘The Machine’.
I WANT MARAB. 2025 will be legendary ✌
— Sean O’Malley (@SugaSeanMMA) March 15, 2024
But the mention of “2025” in O’Malley’s post might have fans confused. Does it mean that O’Malley will have his next UFC fight in 2025? Doesn’t sound pretty likely. However, ‘Sugar’s’ words surely mean that he has a fight against Dvalishvili in his sights. But the mention of 2025 implies that the 29-year-old may choose to fight others before locking horns with the most deserving UFC bantamweight, Merab Dvalishvili.
