Daniel Cormier didn’t see a new bantamweight title challenger emerge out of UFC 324.<\/p>\n
Two pivotal 135-pound clashes took place in Saturday’s event at T-Mobile Arena. In the co-headliner, former champion Sean O’Malley<\/a> returned to the win column by outpointing Song Yadong<\/a>. While Cormier praised O’Malley for his mental approach, he wasn’t particularly wowed by his performance.<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n O’Malley (19-3 MMA, 11-3 UFC) called for UFC bantamweight champion Petr Yan<\/a> (20-5 MMA, 12-4 UFC) on the mic, but was also accepting of the idea that Merab Dvalishvili<\/a> gets an immediate shot at redemption after losing his belt to Yan at UFC 323<\/a>.<\/p>\n “O’Malley was more mature all week leading to this, and I believe that his post-fight speech showed the maturity,” Cormier said on his YouTube channel<\/a>. “He said it felt so good to win. Wins are hard to come by in this thing, especially when you’re one of the best fighters in the world and you’re fighting world champions, or you are a world champion.<\/p>\n “I think tonight that showed in Sean O’Malley getting the victory. Now, is that enough to warrant him getting a title fight? I don’t know. I don’t think so. I think that he needed to do more. He knew that he needed to have a beautiful performance. I thought a beautiful performance meant something like a finish, but he didn’t get that. But he did get a victory, so hat’s off to Sean O’Malley.”<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n In the featured prelim, Umar Nurmagomedov<\/a> (20-1 MMA, 7-1 UFC) cruised past Deiveson Figueiredo<\/a> for the decision win. Although Cormier is friends and training partners with Nurmagomedov, he didn’t think his performance was worthy of a title shot either.<\/p>\n “Umar Nurmagomedov beat Deiveson Figueiredo, but again, at 135, that performance isn’t enough to warrant him getting a title shot,” Cormier said. “So I believe while Petr Yan dominated Merab Dvalishvili last time, but after watching Umar tonight and after watching Sean O’Malley, I believe that we’re going to end up with Merab and Petr Yan again for a third time, just because I don’t think those guys separated themselves enough.”<\/p>\n