Sean O’Malley believes the UFC’s reliance on Conor McGregor as its biggest star might be coming to an end, with his own popularity on the rise. O’Malley and McGregor have been trading shots on Twitter, and O’Malley thinks the Irishman’s jabs come from a place of jealousy about his rapid career ascent.
While McGregor remains a huge PPV draw, O’Malley feels that won’t last much longer, and that’s when he’ll take over as the UFC’s top attraction. Confident in his growing stardom, O’Malley sees himself stepping into McGregor’s shoes as the face of the promotion in the near future.
Ahead of UFC 306 this weekend, O’Malley sat down for an interview with Stephen A. Smith where he answered questions about his recent back and forth with McGregor online and what he feels is the reason behind the animosity from the former double champion.
He stated that McGregor is jealous of where he is right now in his career and that he wants to be in his shoes badly. Smith then asked O’Malley if he feels the UFC’s reliance on McGregor will lessen as time goes on and Sean himself becomes a bigger star. To which O’Malley said,
“I am coming for Conor’s records. I am active, I am what he used to be and what he wants to be still. That would be a good guess. Conor can come back and fight Michael Chandler and do massive numbers. Do massive PPVs, he is still that guy. But for how long?”
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At this point in time, it is hard to picture anyone getting to the same level or even surpassing McGregor. While O’Malley has a good chance, nothing he has done so far in his career commercially indicates he is going to overthrow ‘The Notorious’.
Sean O’Malley the next Conor McGregor?
Let’s not get it twisted here, McGregor is the biggest star the sport has had by far and will remain the case for a long time until someone special comes along and changes the game once again.
Numbers do not lie and unfortunately, they do not suggest that O’Malley might be the guy like he feels he is.
At O’Malley’s age, Conor McGregor was a two-time world champion and had already fought Floyd Mayweather, a fight that holds the record for the second-biggest PPV of all time.
O’Malley on the other hand has never crossed a million in PPV sales and is unlikely that he will do so in this fight. Therefore, ‘Suga’ can say it all he wants but he is not the next McGregor and based on the numbers, it’s not even close.
