Sean O’Malley would love to compete on “Fight Island”, but says July return is more realistic

UFC bantamweight star Sean O’Malley has said he’d love to compete on the proposed Fight Island, but that a July return is more likely.

O’Malley made his return to the Octagon back at UFC 248, scoring an impressive TKO win over José Alberto Quiñónez in a little over two minutes. The win took him to 4-0 in the UFC, including his appearance on Dana White’s Contender Series, and marked his first fight with the promotion since UFC 222 in March 2018.

During a recent interview with MMA Junkie, O’Malley spoke about his ambition when it comes to competing once again.

“Yeah I did [ask to fight on UFC 249],” O’Malley stated. “I messaged Sean Shelby, (but) he said they want me to fight in July in Vegas.

“I would love to fight on ‘Fight Island.’ I think that would be awesome,” O’Malley continued. “But I think realistically my next fight will probably be in July, and it’s going to be in Vegas. And hopefully everything calms down a little bit. But yeah, (I) definitely want to at least fight in July, whether it’s on an island or in Vegas.”

From the sounds of it, O’Malley is content to take things slow. 

“It’s nice – I just don’t think about who I’m fighting next or any of that until we have to get a fight booked,” O’Malley said. “Right now, I’m just improving, because if I get a name in my head, I’m like, ‘OK, I’m fighting this guy.’ Now I kind of start thinking about fighting that guy, and then it changes because something happens, so it’s kind of a waste of time. So I’m just improving my skills right now. It doesn’t matter who I’m fighting next. Once we’re a couple of months out from the date, then we’ll probably figure out who we’re fighting.”

While Dana White has confirmed that events Fight Island are on the horizon, no cards have been confirmed to be taking place there just yet. 

Who do you want to see Sean O’Malley fight next?

This article first appeared on BJPENN.com on 4/16/2020.