Sign up for ESPN+ right here, and you can then stream the UFC live on
your smart TV, computer, phone, tablet or streaming device via the
ESPN app. A standoff appears to be brewing between the Ultimate Fighting Championship and a fighter it
wants to build to stardom. ESPN
broke the news on Thursday night that Sean
O’Malley (14-1) will likely be returning to action on Dec. 11
at UFC
269 against Raulian
Paiva (21-3) at bantamweight. The matchup has not been made
official as the contracts have yet to be signed. On a subsequent
Twitch
broadcast, per MMA reporter Alex
Behunin shortly after the story came out, O’Malley claimed that
he had no knowledge of the booking and that it came as a surprise
to him.
Should the fight come to fruition, it would be O’Malley’s third in
2021. He knocked Thomas
Almeida out in March, and then came back to decimate
Kris
Moutinho in July to lift his career finish rate to 79%. The
victories served as a successful rebound from his first defeat
since turning pro in 2015, as he fell short to Marlon Vera
by first-round knockout after taking damage from Vera’s leg
kicks.
Paiva has rattled off three wins in a row since the lone losing
streak of his career, knocking out Mark De La
Rosa to put him on his current winning stretch. Two decision
triumphs over Zhalgas
Zhumagulov and Kyler
Phillips – the former a catchweight bout after Paiva missed
weight and the latter at bantamweight – have already cinched him a
spot in the UFC’s 135-pound rankings. Unlike his opponent, the
Brazilian posts a low finish rate of 33%.
Much like this matchup, the UFC 269 headliner of Charles
Oliveira vs. Dustin
Poirier is currently still not confirmed, but it is expected to
go on for lightweight gold. The Dec. 11 show likely to be held in
the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas will have three belts on the line
that night, with the co-main event Amanda
Nunes defending her bantamweight strap against Julianna
Pena. The flyweight championship trilogy between Brandon
Moreno and Deiveson
Figueiredo will be concluded as well on the main card.
