Sean O’Malley discusses potential fight with Ilia Topuria: ‘That’s not a great matchup’
Reigning UFC bantamweight champion Sean O’Malley recently spoke about a potential matchup with Ilia Tupuria.
While O’Malley’s profile had made him a target, since becoming the bantamweight world champion, the 28-year-old has put an even bigger target on his back. So much so that even featherweights such as Topuria have been calling out O’Malley. The Spaniard laid out a challenge to the newly crowned champion prompting the pair to share a back-and-forth via social media.
“I see this fight as too easy of a challenge, I would like to find convincing reasons to face you, but at the moment, I can’t seem to find anything that captures my atención. Keep rising and let’s see if someday you deserve my time,” Topuria wrote.
Sean O’Malley responds to Ilia Topuria
Responding to Topuria’s remarks, O’Malley took to his podcast to discuss the potential matchup.
Ilia Topuria, I feel like he’s a little confused on life,” O’Malley began. “He said that he wouldn’t want to fight me if he beats Volkanovski because I’m too easy. I just feel like that makes you look so f*cking stupid. I’m the champ and the biggest star in the UFC (H/T MMA News).
“For him to say that makes me think that he’s — or he just had someone tweet for him or he had something with the translation. Because it’s gotta be one of the dumbest things any UFC fighter has ever said, I would be pushing for that fight. So I’m thinking that he looks at me like, ‘f**k, that’s not a great matchup.’
Tupuria seems to be next in line for a crack at Alexander Volkanovski’s featherweight title following his phenomenal performance against Josh Emmet.
How do you see a potential fight between Sean O’Malley and Ilia Tupuria going?
