Sean O’Malley is excited to see UFC bantamweight champion Aljamain Sterling defend his title against a returning Henry Cejudo in 2023.
Despite being the No. 1 ranked bantamweight contender following his win over Petr Yan at UFC 280, O’Malley is happy to sit back and let the former two-division UFC champion get his shot at 135-pound gold first. Discussing the yet-to-be-announced bout on his TimboSugarShow podcast, O’Malley believes that the ‘Funk Master’ wants no part of the fight with Cejudo.
“Henry’s ready to go. I believe that. I think Henry’s wanting to fight. That’s not whether he’s come back or not. He’s come back. Aljo doesn’t want that fight is what I’m seeing. I don’t know if he doesn’t want that fight because he thinks it’s a tough matchup or he doesn’t want that fight because he doesn’t want to get back into fight camp. I don’t know and then it could be neither. I think it’s both, personally.
“Can you imagine how cringy those press conferences are going to be? I’ve never watched a fight where some people are just that cringy. It’s so cringy it’s entertaining. I’ll still watch. I don’t think it’s going to be the biggest pay-per-view, but it’s so cringy. Tune in to see who’s gonna to say something worse.”
Un face-à-face a eu lieu entre le champion bantam Aljamain Sterling et Henry Cejudo lors de la soirée PFL 👀🔥#PFLWorldChampionship
— La Sueur (@LaSueur_off) November 26, 2022
Sean O’Malley is Excited to Fight the Winner between Sterling and Cejudo
With Aljamain Sterling slated to defend his title against Henry Cejudo, it only stands to reason that Sean O’Malley, as the No. 1 ranked bantamweight contender, would face the winner. ‘Sugar’ plans to be in the arena when the bantamweight title is up for grabs later this year, getting a closer look at his next potential opponent.
“It’ll be an interesting fight. Hopefully, it’ll be in Vegas or somewhere in the United States and we’ll go and sit cageside.”
Addressing the possibility of being a backup for the main event should either fighter find themselves unable to compete, O’Malley said he would entertain the idea, but would likely decline, opting for a full training camp ahead of what would undoubtedly be the biggest fight of his combat sports career.
“For five-fives, ideally our minimum… Or no. I guess… F*ck dude, I would rather just wait until July if it’s not a full camp. Five-fives. I like to have eight weeks for three-fives.
“It’s gonna be a sweet fight regardless. Me versus either of them is massive. It’s gonna be f*cking epic. It could be a main event. It’s f*cking exciting sh*t right there gets my d*ck hard.”
