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‘Suga’ Sean O’Malley has weighed in with his take on a potential fight between reigning UFC featherweight champion Alexander Volkanovski and featherweight contender Josh Emmett. In an edition of the Timbo Sugarshow podcast, UFC bantamweight star O’Malley, his coach Tim Welch, and a couple of other podcast guests discussed multiple topics.
Welch notably referenced Emmett’s five-fight win streak and opined that the 37-year-old deserves a title shot. On that note, discussing a potential fight between Emmett and featherweight kingpin Volkanovski, Sean O’Malley chimed in and stated:
“Dude, ‘Volk’ might piece him.” ‘Suga’ added, “’Volk’ got like, a really good jab. And Josh kind of just throws bombs. But bombs can land. I guess f**king Calvin [Kattar] has a good jab, and Josh won. So, it’d be a sick fight.”
He added:
"In regards to Volkanovski’s fight IQ, O’Malley said, “Yeah, he’s definitely pound-for-pound like, top-three – [UFC welterweight champion] Kamaru [Usman], ‘Izzy’ [UFC middleweight champion Israel Adesanya], him [UFC featherweight champion Alexander Volkanovski].”
Volkanovski is coming off a fourth-round TKO win over Chan Sung Jung aka ‘The Korean Zombie,’ whom he beat at UFC 273 on April 9th. Meanwhile, Emmett is fresh off a closely-contested split decision victory over Calvin Kattar, whom he faced at UFC on ESPN: Kattar vs. Emmett on June 18th. Following his win over Kattar, Emmett asserted that he’d like to compete for the title next.
Presently, Volkanovski is scheduled to defend his title in a trilogy fight against Max Holloway at UFC 276 on July 2nd. Intriguingly, O’Malley too is set to compete at UFC 276, as he faces Pedro Munhoz in a bantamweight bout.
Watch Sean O’Malley address a possible Alexander Volkanovski vs. Josh Emmett matchup at the 31:00-minute mark in the video below:
Josh Emmett on Alexander Volkanovski’s highly-anticipated trilogy fight with Max Holloway at UFC 276
The consensus is that Emmett could likely receive a title shot against the winner of the Volkanovski-Holloway trilogy fight later this year. Speaking to The Schmo, Emmett recently gave his prediction for Volkanovski and Holloway’s third showdown. He hailed both ‘Volk’ and ‘Blessed’ as the best featherweights of all time.
Volkanovski beat Holloway via unanimous decision in 2019 and then via split decision in 2020, with the latter being a much closer fight. Emmett highlighted this and picked Volkanovski to win the trilogy fight, whilst also admitting that Holloway can't be counted out. Emmett said:
“It's hard to go against the champion. He's also undefeated [in the UFC]. I'm looking forward to that fight. They're both phenomenal fighters, phenomenal champions. I'm not sure, man. I could see it going either way, but I'm leaning towards the champion, Volkanovski."
Watch Emmett's full interview in the video below:
