Ilia Topuria Tells Sean O’Malley To Fight Merab Dvalishvili
At UFC 299, Sean O’Malley got a dominant decision win over Marlon Vera to defend the bantamweight title for the first time. In his octagon interview, O’Malley used his microphone time to call out featherweight champion Ilia Topuria. The newly crowned Topuria was not receptive to a fight with O’Malley.
On X, Topuria told O’Malley to fight Merab Dvalishvili before challenging him.
O’Malley and Topuria are two of the biggest stars in the UFC. O’Malley became a superstar with his UFC 292 knockout over Aljamain Sterling. A title defense against Vera only added to his hype. Meanwhile, Topuria knocked out Alexander Volkanovski at UFC 292 to show that he is one of the best fighters alive. That victory saw his popularity skyrocket in his home country of Spain. A fight between the two would be a massive fight.
The issue with an O’Malley and Topuria matchup is that both champions have a litany of challengers in their respective divisions.
UFC CEO Dana White has already stated that Dvalishvili will get a bantamweight title fight. That is a tough test for O’Malley. Additionally, the division is stacked with top talent. Most notable would be Cory Sandhagen who is aiming for a No. 1 contender fight against Umar Nurmagomedov. If O’Malley were to take a fight at featherweight, the bantamweight title picture would quickly get backed up.
Similar claims could be made about how the bout would affect the featherweight division. At the moment, there is steam behind a Volkanovski rematch. Max Holloway is also considered an option depending on how his UFC 300 bout against Justin Gaethje plays out. Lastly, Brian Ortega and Movsar Evloev are entrenched in title talks.
A fight between Topuria and O’Malley will always be in the cards as long as the pair continue to fight at a high level; however, there are a lot of hurdles to immediately booking the fight.
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