Raul
Rosas Jr. believes that while Sean
O’Malley brings a lot of attention to the
Ultimate Fighting Championship bantamweight division, there is
also a downside to his championship reign.
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O’Malley (17-1) won the title with a highlight-reel knockout win
over Aljamain
Sterling at UFC 292 in August. “Sugar” is now set to defend his
strap at UFC 299 in March in a rematch against Marlon Vera
(21-8-1), who handed the champ his lone professional loss in 2020.
The booking happened mainly based on the history between the two,
even though Sterling’s teammate Merab
Dvalishvili, who is on a nine-fight win streak, is widely
considered to be the rightful contender.
While “El Nino Problema” (8-1) acknowledged the attention
O’Malley’s stardom brings to the division, he believes “Sugar”
might hold up the title shots of rightful contenders who are tough
stylistic matchups for him.
“The truth is that there are a lot of tough styles for him that are
in title contention in my opinion, Merab being one of them. So,
let’s see what happens… Him being champion, in a way it’s bad for
the division, for the guys that truly deserve to fight for the
title. But at the same time, it’s also good for the division
because he brings a lot of attention,” Rosas Jr. recently told MMA Junkie.
Rosas Jr. also believes Vera can beat O’Malley again, especially
going in with the confidence of having defeated him before.
However, judging by O’Malley’s performance against Sterling, the
Santa Rosa, Calif. native believes the champ is at his peak right
now.
“I think that Chito can beat him, but the truth is that the way I
saw Sean O’Malley in his last fight, I think this is his best
moment, so I think he’s more dangerous than when Chito fought him
the first time. However, I also feel Chito broke him a bit, and
having that is good. Chito knows he broke him once, so entering a
second fight, that’s going to help him,” Rosas Jr. said.