What a difference one week can make in mixed martial arts (MMA).
Earlier this week, Sean O’Malley was lamenting his current position in the UFC hierarchy. His big return at UFC 324 on January 24th against Song Yadong had just been announced, along with the card’s bout order. O’Malley, once the man the UFC called to headline their biggest gate ever at The Sphere, was relegated to third fight down from the top.
“I’m not even the co-main,” O’Malley complained on his YouTube channel. “Dude, I’m falling off hard. This is embarrassing. What’s next? Prelims? Early prelims? The Suga Show stock is down bad right now.”
Sure, he’s third down. But that’s under two title fights! And O’Malley is currently beltless despite the Suga Athletic Commission overturning his losses. It looked like he’d remain so as long as Merab Dvalishivil — who trounced him twice— remained champion. A week ago, that seemed like it’d be the case for a very long time.
But the MMA Gods laugh at assumptions like that, and Petr Yan took the belt off Merab Dvalishvili at UFC 323 in what was supposed to be Merab’s Fighter of the Year victory lap (watch the highlights here). Now all of a sudden, Suga stock is hot again.
That’s because O’Malley holds a win over Petr Yan from October 2022 — a somewhat dubious split decision win, but he performed better against Yan at UFC 280 than Dvalishvili did at UFC 323. That W, combined with the UFC’s clear desire to impress its new broadcast partner with bankable title fights, sets O’Malley up for another crack at his former title.
All O’Malley has to do to cash this bit of ’Dana White Privilege’ is get past Song Yadong in impressive fashion at UFC 324. And there’s a very good chance he will. “Suga” hasn’t gotten to fight a stand-up oriented opponent like Yadong since he beat the brakes off Chito Vera in 2024. Those two back to back losses to Dvalishvili over the past year have a lot of people forgetting just how good he is. He’s got the perfect opportunity to remind them in January.
If he does, there just may be a title shot against Petr Yan waiting for him on the other side.
For more UFC 323 results, coverage, and highlights click HERE.
