O\u2019Malley defeated Song at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas on January 24<\/a>. The victory continued O\u2019Malley\u2019s effort to regain the bantamweight title he lost to Merab Dvalishvili in 2024.<\/p>\nCejudo Questions O\u2019Malley\u2019s Strategy<\/p>\n
Cejudo criticized O\u2019Malley for what he sees as an attempt to skip ahead of other contenders. He specifically mentioned Umar Nurmagomedov and Cory Sandhagen as fighters who should be ahead of O\u2019Malley in line for a title shot.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt would be ridiculous\u201d to give O\u2019Malley the title shot, Cejudo said on his podcast. He accused O\u2019Malley of believing he can bypass legitimate contenders simply by waiting.<\/p>\n
The former Olympic wrestling champion acknowledged that the UFC is not always a meritocracy. However, he argued that giving O\u2019Malley a title shot in this situation would cross a line.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
O\u2019Malley won the bantamweight championship by knocking out Aljamain Sterling in 2023. He lost the belt to Dvalishvili via decision later that year and was submitted by Dvalishvili in an immediate rematch last June.<\/p>\n
Petr Yan currently holds the bantamweight title after defeating Dvalishvili in December. O\u2019Malley holds a previous victory over Yan from a controversial 2022 decision.<\/p>\n
O\u2019Malley\u2019s Recent Comments<\/p>\n
O\u2019Malley has been vocal about his plans for 2026. He told his YouTube channel followers in early January that he is preparing for both Song and potentially Yan.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m preparing for Petr, too. That\u2019s what\u2019s next,\u201d O\u2019Malley said before his UFC 324 fight. He suggested the matchup \u201cjust makes sense\u201d given their history.<\/p>\n
O\u2019Malley also hinted at possible retirement this year at age 31. \u201cThis might be the last Suga year ever,\u201d he said, though he added he prefers to take things one fight at a time.<\/p>\n
The bantamweight division has faced several matchmaking controversies in recent years. Cejudo himself faced Song Yadong in February 2025, losing via technical decision.<\/p>\n
Cejudo is scheduled to compete in a wrestling match against fellow UFC veteran Urijah Faber on February 28. The event will headline Real American Freestyle\u2019s RAF06 card at Mullett Arena in Tempe, Arizona.<\/p>\n
O\u2019Malley\u2019s professional record stands at 18-3, with his only losses coming to Vera in 2020 and twice to Dvalishvili. Song Yadong\u2019s record is 22-8-1 with one no contest heading into UFC 324.<\/p>\n
The UFC has not announced its plans for the next bantamweight title fight. O\u2019Malley\u2019s victory over Song keeps him in contention, but the promotion has not confirmed whether he will receive an immediate title shot.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TLDR Henry Cejudo says he will stop watching MMA if Sean O\u2019Malley receives a bantamweight title shot Cejudo…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":443949,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[570],"tags":[64,63,786,785,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-443948","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mma","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-fighting","11":"tag-mma","12":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/443948","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=443948"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/443948\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/443949"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=443948"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=443948"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=443948"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}