Sean O’Malley Eyes Featherweight Move Following Bantamweight Struggles
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Former bantamweight champion Sean O’Malley is seeking his next challenge after recently losing his rematch against champion Merab Dvalishvili.
O’Malley initially lost the bantamweight title to Dvalishvili by unanimous decision after being dominated across five rounds. In their rematch, O’Malley’s biggest flaws were exposed once again, this time ending in a submission loss in the third round.
O’Malley is one of the UFC’s biggest stars, and fans have been desperately waiting to see what his next step is.
“Suga” has previously hinted at a career-changing move to featherweight, and his most recent comments have all but confirmed the move is happening, as he has mapped out his future.
“145 lbs Will Happen in the Future”
In an interview with TMZ Sports, Sean O’Malley opened up about his featherweight interest, amid previous struggles with cutting to 135 lbs.
O’Malley said: “145 (featherweight) will happen in the future, yeah probably, most likely. But I still got work down at 135.
“It’s always hard to answer how hard weight cuts are because you feel like you’re dying sometimes… It would be easier at 145, yes.”
O’Malley had the perfect start to his UFC career and smartly built his way up into title contention, so there’s no doubt he will attempt to do it once more before moving up to featherweight.
| UFC Bantamweight Rankings | Fighter |
| (C) | Merab Dvalsihvili |
| #1 | Sean O’Malley |
| #2 | Umar Nurmagomedov |
| #3 | Petr Yan |
| #4 | Cory Sandhagen |
| #5 | Song Yadong |
*Official UFC Bantamweight Rankings
A rematch with Petr Yan could be on the table, as well as a long-awaited showdown against Cory Sandhagen, a fight that’s somehow yet to happen.
Looking ahead to O’Malley’s prospective move, different factors could make it either a success or a failure.
How Well Would Sean O’Malley Perform at Featherweight?
O’Malley is gifted with natural knockout power, which we have seen since his days on the Dana White Contender Series. Moving up would only add more power to the same strikes that took him to UFC gold.
However, O’Malley’s biggest flaw seems to be in the wrestling department. So going against bigger, more powerful wrestlers could be a big challenge for the former UFC champion.
Dvalishvili’s coach, John Wood, previously explained his confidence ahead of the O’Malley fight at Noche UFC to The Scrap, claiming Merab’s pace and cardio would be big factors against O’Malley:
At featherweight, there are guys like Movsar Evloev and Josh Emmett, for example, who are almost just a bigger version of Dvalishvili.
Time is on O’Malley’s side, and he has plenty of it to better his MMA skillset. If Suga were able to come into featherweight with a few more years of experience and momentum behind him, he could definitely cause problems.
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