Song Yadong Does Not Care About Sean O’Malley Mind Games: The COVID Mask Didn’t Matter “I’m here to fight”
Song Yadong doesn’t care about Sean O’Malley’s mind games.
A winner in three of his last four, ‘The Kung-Fu Kid’ will look to score the biggest win of his career when he meets O’Malley in the UFC 324 co-main event on Saturday, January 24.
Last month, O’Malley made headlines when he went face-to-face with Song at a press event while wearing a medical facemask — a clear call back to when President Donald Trump fueled fears about the COVID-19 outbreak in 2020 that originated in China.
During his UFC 324 media day interview, O’Malley apologized for the incident.
“My intentions were never harmful,” O’Malley said. “It was supposed to be a little, silly joke. It was that, and it got taken out of — I apologize if I offended anybody.”
Asked for his thoughts on O’Malley’s action and subsequent apology, Song was quick to dismiss the drama.
“Sean is very good at promotion,” Song said during his media day interview. “He likes to play little mind games, do things at the face‑off, talk a lot online. I don’t really care about that. I’m not here to play games with him, I’m here to fight. When the cage door closes, it’s just me and him, and all that talk and all that show doesn’t help him. I won’t let anything he does take me out of my focus.”
With a win over Song Yadong, O’Malley thinks Petr Yan is next
While Song is coming off a somewhat controversial win over former champ-champ Henry Cejudo last year, O’Malley will look to snap a two-fight losing skid for the first time in his MMA career.
Should ‘Suga’ climb back into the win column at UFC 324, a rematch with reigning bantamweight king Petr Yan could be in his future.
“It’s got to be me versus Petr next,” O’Malley said. “If I go out there and take care of business. If not, I don’t know. I just feel like I’m trying to manifest that. I think I go out there and put on a beautiful performance, me versus Petr at the White House is huge.”
O’Malley earned a sketchy split decision win over Yan in October 2022 that ultimately led to his title-winning performance against Aljamain Sterling at UFC 292.
