{"id":724618,"date":"2026-06-09T06:48:16","date_gmt":"2026-06-09T06:48:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/724618\/"},"modified":"2026-06-09T06:48:16","modified_gmt":"2026-06-09T06:48:16","slug":"aiemann-zahabi-plans-to-strike-with-sean-omalley","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/724618\/","title":{"rendered":"Aiemann Zahabi Plans To Strike With Sean O\u2019Malley"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">But Zahabi <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mmamania.com\/ufc-paramount-plus-news-hub-fight-cards-schedule\/414302\/video-expect-to-see-more-violent-and-less-boring-ufc-fights-in-2026-or-else-we-have-a-new-audience\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">knows how UFC works<\/a>. And he realizes that simply beating O\u2019Malley might not be enough.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">He needs to beat him in an exciting way.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">\u201cThe thing about the UFC is, it is very merit-based in a lot of ways, and it\u2019s not only about winning the fight, but it is winning the fight in impressive ways,\u201d Zahabi told Megan Olivi on UFC on Paramount\u2019s YouTube channel. \u201cI feel like one of the reasons why Hunter [Campbell] called me to fight Sean O\u2019Malley is because I didn\u2019t shoot on Pedro Munhoz \u2014 I struck with him for 15 minutes. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mmamania.com\/2025\/5\/10\/24427717\/ufc-315-results-bloody-jose-aldo-drops-decisions-aiemann-zahabi-dramatic-featherweight-return\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">I struck with Jose Aldo for 15 minutes<\/a>, and I struck with Marlon Vera for 15 minutes.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">\u201cI beat these big names in the right way \u2014 the way the UFC likes to see it happen, and I feel like if I do it again with Sean O\u2019Malley, I can get the title fight,\u201d Zahabi continued. \u201cBut if I go out there and make it a boring fight, they are going to skip right over me.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">For much of Zahabi\u2019s UFC run, he was known as a very solid fighter, but also a somewhat forgettable one because of his performances. To his credit, that has changed over his last few outings.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">Especially in his last three fights, Zahabi has basically left his wrestling shoes at home and boxed with everyone standing across from him. It has worked, but it has also nearly backfired, with both Aldo and Vera dropping him in their fights.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">Still, the 38-year-old Canadian is riding a seven-fight win streak and has quietly put together one of the best runs in the division.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">For more UFC White House fight card news and coverage click <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mmamania.com\/ufc-white-house-2026-fight-card-start-time-full-results-dana-white-conor-mcgregor-cbs-mma\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">HERE<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"But Zahabi knows how UFC works. And he realizes that simply beating O\u2019Malley might not be enough. He&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":724619,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[570],"tags":[64,63,786,40762,785,85,1396,46234,125620,14855],"class_list":["post-724618","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mma","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-fighting","tag-latest-ufc-mma-news","tag-mma","tag-sports","tag-ufc-news","tag-ufc-videos","tag-ufc-white-house-2026","tag-videos"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/724618","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=724618"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/724618\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/724619"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=724618"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=724618"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=724618"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}