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At UFC 250, the spectacular talents of the UFC bantamweight division was on full display as two of the biggest stars in the 135lbs division in today's date scored highly impressive knockout wins on the night. First up, hot prospect Sean O’Malley demolished former WEC champion Eddie Wineland with a walk-off KO in the first round.
Shortly afterward, former bantamweight champion Cody Garbrandt finally broke his three-fight losing skid with a hail mary knockout of Raphael Assuncao. Both Garbrandt and O'Malley took home Performance of the Night bonuses, and since then, a rivalry began to brew between the pair. It all started with a debate over who got the better KO on the night.
The rumors of a potential fight between the two crafty strikers soon started doing the rounds and O’Malley took the opportunity to challenge the former champion to a fight, claiming he'd knockout Garbrandt inside the Octagon. O'Malley further said that he believes Cody won't take the fight.
However, #5 ranked bantamweight Garbrandt isn't really interested in fighting someone who just broke into the top 15 and UFC president Dana White agrees with him. Speaking about the bantamweight division on The Schmozone Podcast, White said that the UFC wants to be careful with the handling of Sean O'Malley.
“The problem is, if you take a Sean O’ Malley, first of all he has been off for a couple of years, he’s a young kid, he’s just coming in. 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 he beat Cody Garbrandt, he’d break into the Top-5 and very few people in their careers will ever break into the Top-5.”
Sean O'Malley is the future
O’Malley has shown great promise until now and even drawn comparisons to former double champion Conor McGregor thanks to his charismatic personality and unorthodox fighting style. This is exact why the promotion is taking time to build him up instead of rushing him into the thick of things, says Dana White.
“He’s one of the kids we’re focused on and have been since the contender series. He had some issues that he had to deal with the last couple of years, which has been brutal, but it’s given him a chance to heal up, and here we are.”
