Former UFC bantamweight champion, Sean O’Malley, is offering current 135-pound titleholder, Petr Yan, the path of least resistance. “No Mercy” recently revealed his plans to have back surgery, which could leave him in a compromised state for what will presumably be a Merab Dvalishvili rematch upon his Octagon return.
“Why would you fight Merab after back surgery when you can fight me?” the surgically-repaired O’Malley said on YouTube. “I suck at wrestling, I can’t grapple, I’m 1-2 in my last three.”
Both of those losses came against Dvalishvili.
“Ideally, I want Petr next,” O’Malley said. “I hate the idea of him coming off back surgery and fighting Merab, especially if he tries to rush it. I f*cking rushed it with my hip and that’s completely different than a back. I don’t know how extensive his back surgery is. It sounds bad. Back surgery? Then you’re going to fight Merab. You’re going to fight Merab within a year after having back surgery? It sounds like a f*cking terrible mistake.”
O’Malley (19-3, 1 NC) narrowly defeated Yan (20-5) in their UFC 280 showdown back in late 2022, a fight that many fans (and pundits) scored in favor of “No Mercy.” That said, it would be hard to deny Dvalishvili (21-5) an immediate rematch, based on his bantamweight dominance over the past few years.
I’m okay with either fight … what say you?
