UFC bantamweight champion Sean O’Malley took aim at several bantamweights during the UFC 299 press conference.
O’Malley is set to headline UFC 299 on Saturday in Miami against Vera in a fight he’s the betting favorite in. However, during today’s press conference O’Malley took the time to blast a couple of other fighters, including former opponent Petr Yan and No. 1 contender Merab Dvalishvili.
“Chito’s a f*****g piñata. Petr Yan’s one fight away from bare knuckle boxing, and Merab’s nose is more crooked than Joe Biden. Let’s f*****g go, baby!,” O’Malley said.
The comment towards Yan was applauded by many fans, as the Russian has struggled since losing his bantamweight title in 2020. ‘No Mercy’ is set to face Song Yadong on the main card of UFC 299 and is on a three-fight losing skid and coming off a one-sided loss to Merab Dvalishvili. Before that, he suffered a split decision loss to Sean O’Malley and a split decision loss to Aljamain Sterling.
So, O’Malley seems to think that if Yan loses on Saturday at UFC 299 it would result in him getting released and potentially turning to bare-knuckle boxing.
But, O’Malley’s main focus is on Marlon Vera as he looks to avenge his lone career loss in his first title defense. However, he says the loss doesn’t bother him, due to it ending by injury, so ‘Suga’ is looking to build off the initial success he had in the first round.
“Yeah, that fight never necessarily bothered me. Look where I’m at now. That fight plays out a different way, I win that fight, and then next fight I fight somebody I wasn’t ready for, and I lose, and my career completely plays out differently,” O’Malley said at UFC 299 media day. “So I go out there and knock out Thomas Almeida like seven times with a beautiful performance, so I’m just grateful for everything that’s happened, but yeah, that fight has never really bothered me. I’m excited to go out there and do what I was going to do in that first fight.”
Sean O’Malley enters his UFC 299 title fight coming off a second-round knockout over Alajamin Sterling to win the title.
