Sean O’Malley called out by three different bantamweight contenders after dropping his title at UFC 306

In the main event of Noche UFC this past weekend, Sean O’Malley just couldn’t get going as he dropped his bantamweight world championship title to the relentless Merab Dvalishvili over five grueling rounds in Las Vegas.

Luckily, whenever Sean O’Malley does return to action after UFC 306, he’ll have the benefit of being able to pick from a plethora of top contenders – three of whom are already trying to secure their spot for the next time the ‘Suga Show’ rolls back into town.

Photo by Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLCSean O’Malley called out by one, two, three bantamweight contendersIn the headlining attraction of the ‘once in a lifetime’ PPV, flashy striker Sean O’Malley just couldn’t get going as he was out-struck and out-pointed en route to a unanimous decision loss to Merab Dvalishvili.

In fact, O’Malley was so gun-shy in the face of the Georgian’s forward pressure that the UFC stats have him landing less than 10 significant strikes in two rounds; and never landing more than 14 significant strikers in any of the five.

As Dana White himself described, it was a decidedly lackluster and ‘flat’ performance from the popular Montana native – so what’s next for Sean O’Malley moving forward?

Well, the performance against Dvalishvili is unlikely to earn him an immediate rematch, with the consensus opinion being that he’ll need one more win before finding himself back in title contention.

Thankfully, three of the best bantamweights in the world have already raised their hand as his potential next opponents, former double champion Henry Cejudo, former bantamweight king Petr Yan, and fan-favorite star Cory Sandhagen.

First up, Henry Cejudo, who must have still been enraged from being trolled by O’Malley on his own podcast earlier in the week as he called the former champion a ‘cokehead’.

“Hey O’Methyl…You wanted to be the next Conor McGregor-well now you are. Neither of you bums can defend a takedown. I’m teaching “Wrestling for Cokeheads” at 8 AM. See you in the morning.”

EXPLAINED: Merab Dvalishvili pushes back on Umar Nurmagomedov being next in lineNext was Petr Yan, who has understandably been desperate to face O’Malley ever since losing a razor-close split decision to ‘Suga’ back in October 2022.

“I never considered Sean a real champion because he was gifted decision against me in Abu Dhabi,” said Yan in a post on X, adding “Rematch season is open, so see you soon.”

Congrats to @MerabDvalishvil for the well deserved win after a long and tough road to the title. Hopefully we can meet again in the future when we are both at 100%

— Petr “No Mercy” Yan (@PetrYanUFC) September 15, 2024 View Tweet

Finally, the ‘Sandman’ himself responded to the UFC bantamweight title changing hands as he wrote on Instagram how it’s “time to give the people what they want.”

“Watching Merab win the title [fast-forward emoji] realizing you get Sandman v Suga because of it. Congrats, Merab. You earned it, man. O’Malley, time to give the people what they want. I don’t promise to not kiss you.”

That final line was in reference to when Dvalishvili kissed O’Malley’s neck at the end of a round, one of several rather strange incidents that referee Herb Dean had to intervene over; but speaking of strange.

OOPS: Dana White reacts as UFC make major flub tagging boxing champion Terence Crawford as rapper Kendrick LamarSean O’Malley posts a series of rather strange reactions to title loss onlineWhilst O’Malley is yet to respond to any of those callouts from three of the best bantamweights in the division, ‘Suga’ has been posting to various different platforms since his decision loss to Dvalishvili.

He first took to X to write: “Over promised under delivered, sorry, love you guys,” before being called out by boxer Devin Haney – “Still kill you,” the MMA superstar fired back in response.

Just a few hours later and O’Malley took to Instagram to share a video of him practicing his takedown defense with the caption “Back to work”.

OUCH: UFC doctor shares horror pictures of the ‘worst cut in history’ suffered at Noche UFCFinally, the 29-year-old posted to Snapchat, a rather strange short video of him in an ‘emo-filter’ to Evanescence’s Bring Me to Life, followed by a shot in the bathtub with the caption “F*** Not undefeated anymore.”

So, whilst O’Malley might be disappointed by his performance at The Sphere, it seems that the superstar is in good spirits – who his comeback opponent will be, we’ll have to wait and see.

UFC 306: Merab Dvalishvili branded ‘weird’ by Dana White as he ‘kisses’ Sean O’Malley during fightRelated Topics