While Ilia
Topuria is eyeing another belt before defending his
featherweight title, he has advised Sean
O’Malley to defend the bantamweight strap once more before
making a double-champ bid.
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O’Malley successfully defended his bantamweight title for the first
time with a dominant unanimous decision win over Marlon Vera
in the main event at UFC
299 on Saturday. Going into the fight, “Suga” had been rallying
for a clash against Topuria if he defeated Vera.
O’Malley reiterated his callout in his post-fight Octagon interview
while also keeping the door open for another bantamweight title
defense against Merab
Dvalishvili if the UFC wants to go in that direction.
“I want Illia. Baby, give me Illia… He’s a scary f—-ng dude. Illia
excites me, going up a weight class excites me but I’m honestly
here for whatever,” O’Malley said. If you guys want me to knockout
Merab, I’ll do that too, but Illia is the exciting fight for the
people.”
Dvalishvili, who was also the backup fighter for the UFC 299
headliner, is riding a 10-fight winning streak and widely
considered to be rightful contender for the next shot at the
135-pound belt. While O’Malley hasn’t committed to anything for his
next appearance, Topuria offered a little direction to the
bantamweight champion in response on social media.
“Suga, congrats.. Was a beautiful performance! “ Topuria wrote on
X. “There is a fight chasing you with Merab.. Get that done
first.”
Suga, congrats.. Was a beautiful
performance! There is a fight chasing you with Merab.. Get that
done first .— Ilia Topuria (@Topuriailia)
March 10, 2024
While Topuria wants O’Malley to defend his strap a second time
before moving up, the Spaniard called out Islam
Makhachev and even Khabib
Nurmagomedov immediately after dethroning Alexander
Volkanovski at UFC 298 last month.