Sean O’Malley sees himself competing on the biggest stages in combat sports — though not just yet.
The UFC bantamweight champion, who is expected to defend the 135-pound championship against top contender Merab Dvalishvili in the coming months, has long spoken of his desire to become the latest mixed martial arts superstar to transition to the boxing ring — and after Ryan Garcia’s stunning victory over Devin Haney in New York last Saturday night, he says that the stars are aligning for the latest cross-codes matchup.
Not so fast, though: O’Malley says he is about two more wins away from achieving the type of global fame that would make the Garcia bout a blockbuster.
“They told me you can do a boxing fight, 100 percent, if it makes us enough money,” he said on his TimboSugarShow podcast, as noted by MMA Fighting, of receiving a UFC endorsement to pursue the Garcia fight.
“So the option’s there, it just has to be able to make enough money. But Ryan being a f*cking freak like that, you need two A-sides to make a f*cking Floyd-Conor fight.”
RAINBOW CACA BRAIN
WANTS TO BOX
BE PREPARED TO BLEED RAINBOW pic.twitter.com/GGrvV7ZSCH
— RYAN GARCIA (@RyanGarcia) April 22, 2024
The aforementioned McGregor-Mayweather matchup from August 2017 remains one of the most-watched spectacles in the history of combat sports; a fight which paired the two biggest fighters from their respective sports. O’Malley, though, knows he isn’t quite there yet.
“I’ve still got to become bigger,” he said. “Two more f*cking sick performances and then we’re talking about being able to do whatever the f*ck we want.”
Responding to O’Malley on the platform formerly known as Twitter and a (since-deleted) Instagram post, Garcia referred to O’Malley as a “Conor clone” and said that he wanted an O’Malley fight in MMA but would accept boxing.
“Be prepared to bleed, Rainbow,” Garcia wrote.
