{"id":390787,"date":"2026-01-06T02:16:07","date_gmt":"2026-01-06T02:16:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/390787\/"},"modified":"2026-01-06T02:16:07","modified_gmt":"2026-01-06T02:16:07","slug":"sean-omalley-contemplating-wrapping-exciting-career-in-26","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/390787\/","title":{"rendered":"Sean O’Malley Contemplating Wrapping Exciting Career In ’26"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sean O\u2019Malley<\/a> (18-3, 1 NC MMA, 10-3, 1 NC UFC,) currently the No. 3 contender at bantamweight and formerly the UFC Bantamweight Champion, is looking ahead to the evening of Jan. 24. That night, he\u2019ll travel to T-Mobile Arena in Enterprise, NV, the host venue of UFC 324<\/a> on Paramount Plus.<\/p>\n

During UFC 324, Sean O\u2019Malley, nicknamed \u201cSuga,\u201d will be fighting No. 5 contender Song Yadong<\/a> (22-8-1, 1 NC MMA, 11-3-1 UFC) in a three-round fight at five minutes per round. The Jan. 24 fight in Enterprise will be O\u2019Malley\u2019s first appearance inside the fabled UFC Octagon since June 7 of last year.<\/p>\n

Seven months ago, he traveled to Newark, NJ and Prudential Center<\/a> for UFC 316. Merab Dvalishvili (21-5 MMA, 14-3 UFC) served as the now-former champion\u2019s adversary that late spring night. Although the fight between Sean O\u2019Malley and Merab Dvalishvili progressed to the third round of a scheduled five, it was the latter who would emerge victorious thanks to a north south choke submission.<\/p>\n

Embed from Getty Images<\/a><\/p>\n

Sean O\u2019Malley Eyeing Petr Yan Bantamweight Championship Fight Later On This Year<\/p>\n

On Monday, Sean O\u2019Malley took to YouTube<\/a> to discuss a variety of topics. Among items mentioned is a contest versus No. 6 pound-for-pound contender Petr Yan<\/a> (20-5 MMA, 12-4 UFC.) Yan fought just last month inside the same T-Mobile Arena in UFC 323, defeating Merab Dvalishvili by unanimous decision after five rounds for the UFC Bantamweight Championship.<\/p>\n

He\u2019d like to fight Petr Yan for his second appearance inside the fabled UFC Octagon in 2026.<\/p>\n

\u201cHonestly, I\u2019m getting ready for Petr still, too,\u201d Sean O\u2019Malley told his YouTube audience Monday. \u201cI can\u2019t look past Song, which I\u2019m not, Song\u2019s (expletive deleted) dangerous! He\u2019s got power in both hands, he\u2019s fast. I\u2019m preparing for him. We\u2019re preparing for Petr, too.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Sean O\u2019Malley Thinking of Ending Fighting Career in 2026<\/p>\n

If all goes well, Sean O\u2019Malley is considering making 2026 the final year of his career as an MMA fighter. He discussed the possibility of putting his gloves in the center of the Octagon later on this year, as well.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe knows,\u201d O\u2019Malley said. \u201cPetr knows. That\u2019s what\u2019s next. I\u2019m going to go out there, take care of Song [Yadong,] and that\u2019s what\u2019s next. 2026 is going to be lit, go out there, take care of Song. Take care of Petr. DoingWell\u2019s going to blow up. I\u2019m going to retire. This might be the last \u2018Suga\u2019 year ever.\u201d<\/p>\n

O\u2019Malley also mentioned that it\u2019s impossible for him to pinpoint where he\u2019ll be in the future.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just take it one fight at a time,\u201d he said. \u201c[If] I go out there and lose and lose, I\u2019m done with this. Ideally, I go out there, win. I don\u2019t care if Merab retires. I still know I can beat [him.] Ideally, I take care of Song and go get that Petr fight. The Petr fight [happens,] then we\u2019ll just go from there, see what life throws at me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sean O\u2019Malley: Looking Back on Recent Run in UFC<\/p>\n

Sean O\u2019Malley has been a streaky fighter of late in the UFC. There have been times where \u201cSuga\u201d has been sweet to watch and other times where he\u2019s hit some sour notes.<\/p>\n

Going into UFC 324 later on this month, he\u2019s dropped two fights in a row, both to Merab Dvalishvili with the bantamweight championship on the line, most recently last June in New Jersey. This losing skid follows up a run where Sean O\u2019Malley went unbeaten in seven consecutive fights between March of 2021 and March of 2024.<\/p>\n

Among the highlights during Sean O\u2019Malley\u2019s unbeaten streak was a thunderous second-round knockout victory over Aljamain Sterling<\/a> in August of 2023 to take the UFC Bantamweight Championship in the main event of UFC 292 in Boston.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Final Thoughts<\/p>\n

Sean O\u2019Malley has more than earned the right to call the shots as to how his professional life will go at this point in his career. No matter what else happens in his time as a fighter, there\u2019s one certainty:<\/p>\n

Watching Sean O\u2019Malley inside the cage has been a joy to behold. When the day comes for him to retire, he\u2019ll certainly be missed on fight night.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sean O\u2019Malley (18-3, 1 NC MMA, 10-3, 1 NC UFC,) currently the No. 3 contender at bantamweight and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":390788,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[444],"tags":[49,48,641,638,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-390787","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mma","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-fighting","11":"tag-mma","12":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/390787","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=390787"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/390787\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/390788"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=390787"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=390787"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=390787"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}