Former UFC bantamweight champion Sean O\u2019Malley seems open to booking a recently rumored fight with one of the division\u2019s rising contenders.<\/p>\n
Sean O\u2019Malley is in a peculiar spot in the UFC bantamweight title picture. After back-to-back losses to UFC bantamweight champion Merab Dvalishvili, O\u2019Malley is arguably on the outside looking in when it comes to discussing who is next in line for a title shot.<\/p>\n
O\u2019Malley, who hasn\u2019t fought since losing by submission to Dvalishvili at UFC 316<\/a>, wants to return to the Octagon by the end of the year. Despite coach Tim Welch publicly entertaining O\u2019Malley moving to 145 lbs, O\u2019Malley believes he has unfinished business in the division he once reigned over.<\/p>\n As the UFC matchmakers continue to ponder their next moves, O\u2019Malley has been linked to a rumored showdown with a fellow elite striker for his return. While O\u2019Malley didn\u2019t confirm he\u2019s received a fight offer, he\u2019s intrigued by the possibility of fulfilling the recent fight rumors at UFC 323.<\/p>\n Sean O\u2019Malley vs. Song Yadong?<\/p>\n During a recent episode of the TimboSugarShow<\/a>, O\u2019Malley responded to speculation of a potential fight between him and surging bantamweight Song Yadong.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n \u201cEveryone and their grandmother is sending me the screenshots of Song Yadong vs. \u2018Suga\u2019 Dec. 6. People are saying, \u2018Congrats, when does this fight camp start?,\u2019 all this and that,\u201d O\u2019Malley said. \u201cI\u2019m assuming it started because someone sent me when the fights were in China, Song took a picture with Merab and said he\u2019s fighting me next or whatever.<\/p>\n \u201cTo be honest, I don\u2019t know what the plan is. There\u2019s nothing official on my side. I haven\u2019t talked to the UFC specifically on who, when, and where. Song seems like a great next opponent, though. I mean, it makes sense. I like the matchup. That seems good.\u201d (h\/t MMA Junkie<\/a>)<\/p>\n Yadong hasn\u2019t fought since a technical decision win over former titleholder Henry Cejudo earlier this year at UFC Seattle. The fight ended after Cejudo was deemed unable to continue following multiple accidental eye pokes.<\/p>\n Yadong has won three of his last four fights, including recent victories over Ricky Sim\u00f3n and Chris Guti\u00e9rrez. He\u2019s regarded as one of the fastest bantamweights in the UFC and one of the division\u2019s top kickboxers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former UFC bantamweight champion Sean O\u2019Malley seems open to booking a recently rumored fight with one of the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":149474,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[570],"tags":[64,63,786,25363,785,13421,100595,85,787],"class_list":["post-149473","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mma","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-fighting","tag-merab-dvalishvili","tag-mma","tag-sean-omalley","tag-song-yadong","tag-sports","tag-ufc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149473","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=149473"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149473\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/149474"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=149473"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=149473"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=149473"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}