Sean O’Malley insists he will land UFC title regardless of result against Petr Yan at UFC 280

Set for the biggest test of his Octagon tenure to date, streaking bantamweight contender, Sean O’Malley has claimed that his future aspirations of landing divisional gold do not hinge on a successful outing against former champion, Petr Yan in October at UFC 280. 

O’Malley, who will make his second Octagon walk of the year in October in an Abu Dhabi, UAE outing, last featured in July on the main card of UFC 276 during International Fight Week – battling to an eventual official ‘No Contest’ against Brazilian veteran, Pedro Munhoz after he landed an unintentional eye poke. 

The result ended O’Malley run of consecutive victories at three – after the Montana striker racked up a trio of back-to-back finishes against Thomas Almeida, Kris Moutinho, and most recently, Raulian Paiva last December.

Drawing the most high-profile opponent of his UFC run so far, O’Malley, a product of Dana White’s Contender Series – tackles Dudinka technician, Yan at UFC 280 on October 22. – in what could likely come as a potential title-eliminator at the bantamweight limit.

Sean O’Malley believes he will likely fight Petr Yan more than once in their UFC tenures

However, rather than playing up the importance or significance of his fight with Yan, O’Malley, whom remains confident of success against the Russian, insists his future aspirations of landing UFC gold do not falter or fade away should he fail to traverse Yan.

“The closer the fight gets, the more confident I’ll become,” Sean O’Malley told ESPN MMA reporter, Brett Okamoto. “I’ll get back to camp, get back to sparring, get dialled in, get back to eating perfect, sleeping perfect – just getting everything dialled in. I’m just gonna get more confident as the fight gets closer. And then fight night, I’m gonna win that fight.”

“Every fight that I go into, I’m okay with losing,” Sean O’Malley revealed. “I’m not attached to, ‘I have to win this fight’. I’m gonna be a world champ someday, 100 per cent. I’ve never been scared of losing – I think the closer the fight gets, the more confident I’m gonna become.” 

Suffering just a sole professional defeat, O’Malley rebounded to the winner’s enclosure against Almeida, following a first round TKO defeat against upcoming UFC San Diego main event feature, Marlon Vera back in August 2020.