"Made all the sense in the world" - Dana White on Sean O'Malley vs. Petr Yan at UFC 280
In a recent appearance on My Mom's Basement with Robbie Fox, UFC president Dana White said that the promotion made the UFC 280 fight between Petr Yan and Sean O'Malley because it "made all the sense in the world."
During the interview, White stated that both the former bantamweight champion and the No.13 ranked 'Sugar' Sean were eager to fight each other:
"O'Malley was ready, he wanted this fight. He wanted Petr Yan, you know we kicked it around, battled with it a little bit back and forth. Yan wanted the fight, made all the sense in the world."
Watch Dana White talk about the upcoming UFC 280 match-up below:
Apparently, 'Sugar', who was reluctant to face high-level competition earlier, is now ready for a huge step up. Interestingly, the fight was initially announced by O'Malley himself during his appearance on ESPN MMA's The DC & RC show .
Sean O'Malley is currently 15-1 in his pro-MMA career. However, 'No Mercy' is undoubtedly a huge step up for the American, especially considering the fact that O'Malley has only faced one ranked opponent in his entire UFC career up until now.
The former champion, on the other hand, will be looking to catapult himself to yet another title fight by taking out the highly popular up-and-comer. The 29-year-old Russian is currently 16-3 in his pro-MMA career.
O'Malley opened up as a +375 underdog against the -500 favorite former champion for their UFC 280 clash.
The lines have already moved to:
Petr Yan -500 (1/5)
Sean O’Malley +375 (15/4)
(odds via @betonline_ag) #UFC280
What Sean O'Malley thinks about his upcoming fight with Petr Yan
In a recent interview with TheMacLife, firey bantamweight 'Sugar' Sean O'Malley said that he was ready for former champion Petr Yan, regardless of the fact that the American has not faced much top-level competition so far.
O'Malley stated that since his first scrap with a ranked opponent (Pedro Munhoz) ended in a no-contest, he is looking forward to getting inside the cage at the earliest.
"Everyone's like holy s**t I can't believe you're fighting Petr Yan. For me it's like I've been trying to fight Petr. So it's crazy if you look at it considering the rankings, considering who he has beat, Aldo, Cory... like he's beat some of the best guys in the world and I've got a no contest, my best win is a no contest over Pedro Munhoz. In that sense, it's kind of a big deal but I'm ready for this."
Watch Sean O'Malley's interview with TheMacLife below:
The No. 13 bantamweight further predicted that Petr Yan was going to be aggressive in their fight. O'Malley added that he didn't think Yan liked him too much:
"I think he's going to come forward be aggressive. He's going to want to hit me you know. I dont think he likes me. He's going to be emotionally involved in the fight."