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Sean O’Malley recently weighed in on the bantamweight division and noted that there is one fighter from the 135-pound weight class that he envisions fighting in the future.
Now that 'Sugar' is the reigning UFC bantamweight champion, all the top contenders will target him for his spot at the top of the division. While speaking with CBS Sports' Shakiel Mahjouri, he revealed his intentions to be a fighting champion and even named Cory Sandhagen as a future opponent. He said:
"Cory [Sandhagen] is going to stick around the top. He's very, very skilled. I don't see a lot of guys in the division being able to beat him other than me. I think Cory is a good dude too. I like Cory. That fight will happen someday."
The 29-year-old is scheduled to make his first title defense against Marlon 'Chito' Vera at UFC 299, where he could avenge his only career loss. Meanwhile, Sandhagen is the No.4 ranked UFC bantamweight and is currently riding a three-fight winning streak that includes wins over Song Yadong, 'Chito', and Rob Font.
With the upcoming bantamweight bout between Merab Dvalishvili and former champion Henry Cejudo likely serving as a title eliminator, it remains to be seen whether Sanhagen will earn a title shot against the winner of O'Malley vs. Vera when he returns to the octagon.
Sean O’Malley fires back at Ilia Topuria
Sean O'Malley and Ilia Topuria have been involved in quite the war of words on social media and the UFC bantamweight champion recently fired back at the featherweight contender.
'Sugar' took to his X account, where he responded to Topuria's claims that he isn't a star and that he offered to fight him. He clapped back and issued a challenge to the unbeaten featherweight regarding the performance of their upcoming pay-per-view events, while also taking a jibe at his plans to fight Conor McGregor. He wrote:
"Couple things here. 1st. Teenagers places ? No understando. 2nd. Let’s make a bet on PPV numbers. 100k cash whoever’s PPV is bigger. If you don’t have 100k that’s fine you can do 4 payments of 25k. 3rd. Conor doesn’t know who you are."
