Sean O’Malley floats UFC title fight rematch Marlon Vera in March: ‘Why not have a little interim belt?’

ByRoss Markey
Sean O'Malley welcomes title rematch with Marlon Vera ahead of UFC 292

Off the back of his close, split decision win over former UFC bantamweight champion, Petr Yan earlier this month, newly ranked number one contender, Sean O’Malley is willing to run back his August 2020 loss to the surging, Marlon Vera in an interim title clash, if undisputed champion, Aljamain Sterling elects to remain sidelined until June.

Featuring in a high-profile main card clash against former undisputed bantamweight best, Yan at UFC 280 in Abu Dhabi, UAE earlier this month, Montana striker, O’Malley turned in the biggest victory of his professional career to date – defeating Yan with a clost, split judging effort in the Middle East.

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Sean O’Malley welcomes a March rematch with Marlon Vera

Tipped to compete for a title of some form in his next Octagon outing, the Dana White’s Contender Series product has noted his willingness to share the Octagon with Ecuadorian contender, Vera in a much-rumored rematch, even if he only gets to compete for an interim crown.

“It’s so hard to say, everyone’s different,’ Sean O’Malley said on his YouTube channel. “I get it, Aljo (Aljamain Sterling) cuts a lot of weight. He’s probably already back up to 165-170, he’s probably like, ‘I don’t want to cut weight again in the next couple of months, I want to enjoy it.’ But if you do think… he wants to wait eight months.”

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“I get it, I do,” Sean O’Malley said. “But say the number one contender, ‘Suga’ Sean O’Malley is ready to go in March, and the guy in line, in my opinion, should be (Marlon) ‘Chito’ Vera. He just beat Dominick Cruz, beat Frankie Edgar, beat some good guys. Why not have a little interim belt and then the winner of the interim belt fight Aljo when he’s ready?” (Transcribed by MMA Fighting

Initially sharing the Octagon with Vera back in the co-main event of UFC 252 back in August 2020, O’Malley, who then boasted an undefeated record, suffered a first round TKO loss due to ground strikes after suffering from drop foot earlier in the first frame.

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Site Manager & Editor: MMA reporter based in Ireland. Follow along at @Ross_Markey on Twitter for all the latest news, fight announcements, opinion, and feature pieces.

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