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Former UFC bantamweight kingpin Sean O'Malley previously appeared on The Joe Rogan Experience. During the sit-down, he said he would not be willing to fight the elite lightweights.
O'Malley is set to rematch Merab Dvalishvili this Saturday in the main event of UFC 316. In their first meeting, Dvalishvili snatched the bantamweight title from O'Malley by cruising to a unanimous decision victory at UFC 306 last year. The former champion has not stepped into the octagon since that fight, as he decided to take some time off and make improvements to his game and lifestyle.
'Suga' stated that the 155-pound division would be his natural weight class; however, he would not be willing to fight elite lightweights like Justin Gaethje and Charles Oliveira.
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"If I fought at my natural weight class, if I didn't cut weight, walk around at 158 or 159 [pounds,] I'd fight at 155 [pounds.] You know what? I'm just going to do that. I'm going to fight Justin Gaethje [and] Charles Oliveira, like, there's no way."
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Check out Sean O'Malley's comments below:
Sean O'Malley admits faking animosity toward Merab Dvalishvili
Sean O'Malley recently appeared on the Full Send Podcast, where he admitted that he forced the beef with Merab Dvalishvili in the build-up to their bout last year, claiming that no bad blood ever existed between the fighters.
O'Malley said that the reason he faked the animosity with Dvalishvili was that he performed really well when he fought with genuine hatred against Marlon Vera in his previous fight. 'Suga' hoped that carrying the same emotions into his bout against 'The Machine' would help him perform well.
"I was like, I'm going to carry that [hatred from the Vera fight] into the Merab [fight]. I almost forced myself to not like Merab, but it wasn't genuine. [During] this camp, I have nothing against Merab. I want to go out there and compete because I love to compete."
He added:
"I'm an athlete, I'm a high-level performer. I want to go out there and put on a beautiful performance because I love this sport, not necessarily because I don't like Merab."
Check out Sean O'Malley's comments below (6:15):
