Kamaru Usman urges Sean O'Malley to "cement" his legacy before chasing "gimmick fight" against Ryan Garcia

Umar
Kamaru Usman (left) and Sean O
Kamaru Usman (left) and Sean O'Malley (right). [via Getty Images]

After Ryan Garcia's latest shock win over Devin Haney, tension between him and UFC bantamweight champion Sean O'Malley is back on the rise.

The two again teased a crossover boxing fight after O'Malley took a dig at Garcia's defensive tactics against Haney. Both fighters have expressed their desire to fight each other on multiple occasions in the past.

Former UFC welterweight champion Kamaru Usman vehemently opposed the idea of O'Malley crossing over to the boxing ring before defending his bantamweight title in a stacked division.

On his Pound 4 Pound podcast with Henry Cejudo, Usman urged O'Malley to focus on the contenders in his division and create his legacy before considering a switch to boxing, albeit temporary.

'The Nigerian Nightmare' said:

"Why are we even entertaining this right now? Sean O’Malley has a whole, like literally, one of the deepest divisions to even get through. You have one of the deepest divisions of contenders waiting for you.
"How about we beat up a couple of guys in my division first and cement myself as a great in my division, cement myself first before I’m even entertaining these gimmick fights. Sean O'Malley has a couple of contenders he needs to get through first."

Check out Kamaru Usman's full comments on Sean O'Malley fighting Ryan Garcia (15:27):

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Sean O'Malley weighs in on Conor McGregor's UFC 303 return

UFC superstar Conor McGregor will make his much-awaited return to action at UFC 303 against Michael Chandler in a welterweight bout.

O'Malley discussed McGregor's International Fight Week bout and his approach to it. He speculated whether 'The Notorious' was going to take the fight seriously and also expressed his wish to see an unhinged version of McGregor.

'Sugar' drew parallels to Ryan Garcia's recent behavior at promotional events that was misinterpreted as the fighter not being focused, only for Garcia to go out and dominate Devin Haney.

O'Malley said:

"Conor is not going to not take it seriously. Well, he has been sparring and s**t, right, he is in an actual gym. I don't want him to stay cool calm and collected. What about Garcia? He literally just did the same thing ... We want the f*****g coke-head Conor."

Check out Sean O'Malley's comments on Conor McGregor below (59:06):

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Edited by Nicolaas Ackermann
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