Sorry, Sean O’Malley, your request for a fight with Ilia Topuria has been turned down … by his mother.
O’Malley successfully defended his bantamweight title at UFC 299, pummeling Marlon “Chito” Vera across five rounds to win a shutout 50-45 decision (watch the highlights here). After the fight he called for a champion vs. champion superfight with new featherweight title holder Ilia Topuria. An exciting and bankable fight for sure, but not one Topuria is willing to accept at this moment.
“Suga, congrats. Was a beautiful performance!” Topuria wrote on Twitter in response to O’Malley’s callout. “There is a fight chasing you with Merab [Dvalishvili]. Get that done first.”
as Merab has proven, they aren’t willing to step on each others’ title aspirations.
Even Ilia’s mother was quick to dismiss a Topuria vs. O’Malley fight with Dvalishvili waiting in the wings.
“It’s been a long time since our Merab has earned this fight and it needs to happen!” Inga Topuria wrote in the comments of a Facebook post.
She’s right about that. After a rough 0-2 start in the UFC, Dvalishvili has gone 10-0 in the bantamweight division. His last three opponents were former champions Jose Aldo, Petr Yan, and Henry Cejudo. He handled all three with relative ease. After six years of non-stop winning, it’s time for “The Machine” to get his shot at championship gold.
willing if slightly less eager to accept that fight.
“I wanted the Ilia fight, it excites me, but I also thought the fans would get excited about it,” O’Malley said leading up to UFC 299. “I got a lot of pushback saying ‘you’re ducking Merab, Merab is next.’ So, Merab’s next. Let’s do Merab. I’m telling you guys, I knock Merab out.
“He’s sloppy. I’m accurate. I’m too fast. I’m too sharp. I put Merab’s lights out — worse than Aljo.”
