Sean O’Malley believes Umar Nurmagomedov is probably “the toughest fight” at bantamweight: “I believe Umar is a potential superstar”
Sean O’Malley believes that Umar Nurmagomedov serves as one of the toughest fights available to him at bantamweight.
This weekend, Sean O’Malley will attempt to cement his position as one of the biggest stars in MMA. He’ll do so by defending his championship against long-time rival Marlon ‘Chito’ Vera.
While he doesn’t want to look past Vera, it’s always interesting to look to the future. O’Malley clearly wants to keep hold of his belt as long as he possibly can, and there are lots of interesting challengers at 135 pounds.
That includes Umar Nurmagomedov, who extended his unbeaten record to 17-0 this past weekend. In a recent interview, ‘Suga’ made it known that he’s interested in taking Umar on at some point.
O’Malley wants Nurmagomedov
“People think I’m avoiding tough fights,” O’Malley told ESPN. “Umar is probably the toughest fight, and yeah, I’ve been bringing his name up – but it also has to make sense. Umar isn’t a star at all. There’s potential to be a star/star – superstar. I believe I’m a superstar. I believe ‘Chito’ (Vera) is a star. I believe Umar is a potential superstar, literally because he has the last name Nurmagomedov. I’ve never watched the dude fight. I’ve watched some highlights. He’s very skilled. He trains at a good gym. His last name is Nurmagomedov. He’s Russian. He has potential because of that.
“I lied – I think I’ve watched him fight some dude where I think he kneed him in the lips, so I’ve watched him fight once. I feel like just with the name and the skill of the UFC being able to promote certain people, and he comes from that gym – Khabib (Nurmagomedov), I think they train together; he’ll in his corner. O’Malley – Irish … it’s there. There’s something there. If he can become a star with that, that’s the fight I want, too. I don’t want just the easiest fight. I want the biggest fight, and if I have two options and one guy I think is a little bit better of a challenge, I’ll take that one.”
Quotes via MMA Junkie
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Topics:
Sean O'Malley UFC Umar Nurmagomedov
