UFC bantamweight Petr Yan has little respect for his UFC 280 opponent, Sean O’Malley. Yan aired his disapproval for O’Malley at the UFC 280 media day, declaring his opponent a “McGregor wannabe”. In fairness, O’Malley and the UFC have done little to dispel the notion, comparing this fight to McGregor’s historic victory over Jose Aldo.
“Considering the other side of things, you can definitely compare it to Conor-Aldo fight. Sean is a UFC project and Conor wannabe, but the result of this matchup will be different. You saw my fight with Aldo already.
Petr Yan Labels O’Malley a “Conor McGregor Wannabe”
I realize it’s three rounds, it’s a different distance. I need to be as focused as I was before, just need to be more sharp.” O’Malley echoed McGregor’s flashy confidence, declaring himself the “main event” of the evening.
“I’m the biggest draw in the bantamweight division. One of the biggest draws in the UFC. I go out there and beat the No. 1 guy, like, who else would I fight other than for the title? So I kind of already knew that. Hearing it confirmed from [UFC President] Dana [White], I already knew that basically. It didn’t really do much.
But yeah, I think this is a massive fight. It’s obviously not a main event, but it could be a main event. This is a massive fight.
Any time I’m on a card, I always say I’m the main event. Because every fighter should think like that. I know Charles [Oliveira]-Islam [Makhachev] is a sweet fight, TJ-Aljo’s a sweet fight, it’s not a huge fight. But you could say that [this is the biggest fight]”
O’Malley promised to “have fun” on the night, and like McGregor before him, predicted the manner in which he would defeat Petr Yan. “When I think about having fun, I think about knocking someone out.
I love grappling, it’s my favorite training. Like if I’m going to pick what I’m going to do, I love to go grapple rather than spar or anything but when I think of fighting and putting on performances and entertaining, I think of knocking people out. We’ll see where the fight goes but I’d love to knock him out.”
Sean O’Malley is one of the most popular rising stars in the UFC. His brash, colorful image and penchant for early knockouts are reminiscent of McGregor’s meteoric rise through the UFC, although O’Malley still has yet to scale the heights of Conor McGregor’s stellar career.
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