Sean O’Malley expresses interest in fighting for the featherweight title in 2024: “If Ilia goes out there and beats Volk, I would love to move up to 145”
Sean O’Malley has confirmed that he’d be interested in moving up to featherweight to try and become a double champion.
Last weekend at UFC 292, Sean O’Malley rose to the top of the mountain. He defeated Aljamain Sterling via second-round TKO to become the new UFC bantamweight champion. It’s a moment that many felt would happen one day, but when it actually played out, few could believe it went down the way it did.
Now, the big question is a simple one: what’s next? O’Malley is set to become the UFC’s biggest star in a long time, and he has plenty of routes he can go down in order to maximise that star power.
In a recent interview, ‘Suga’ confirmed that one of his ideas involves going up to 145 pounds in an attempt to become a double champ like Conor McGregor.
“I remember sitting there vividly doing an interview telling people I will be bigger than Conor McGregor,” O’Malley said. “I got a lot of crap for it. There was definitely a lot of hate online saying, like, ‘Come on, man, that’s not realistic.’ But in my mind it was. I just knew I had to do the things that I’ve been doing, which is knocking people out, putting on beautiful performances, and I would get there.”
O’Malley’s big plan
“I think there’s a couple ways of (reaching McGregor status),” O’Malley said. “Defending the belt obviously is one way. Putting a beautiful knockout on for my first title defense would do that. Moving up a weight class, but I’m not trying to fight (featherweight champ) Alexander Volkanovski. Hopefully he’s fighting Ilia Topuria. If Ilia goes out there and beats Volk, I would love to move up to 145 and fight Ilia. If Gervonta Davis – you know he’s (5-foot-3), that’s a fight that interests me.”
Quotes via MMA Junkie
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