Sean O'Malley considers UFC 298 appearance, eyes double champ status should Ilia Topuria emerge king at 145 pounds

Sean O'Malley recently dropped a major teaser for his future plans as he hinted at making an appearance at UFC 298.

UFC 298 is scheduled to take place next Saturday and will be headlined by the featherweight championship bout between Ililia Topuria and champion Alexander Volkanovski. During a recent appearance on The Mighty Cast, O'Malley confirmed to Demetrious Johnson that he wants to become a two-division champion.

O'Malley further mentioned that he would like 'El Matador' to be his opponent. He said:

​

"Yeah, I wanna become champ-champ. Ilia [Topuria] just has that face, I would just love to knee him right up the middle and break his little nose. I would like to do that, so that's that. I'll proably head out to California to watch that fight, Ilia vs. 'Volk'." [43:52 - 44:08]

Obviously, there is a lot that has to transpire before 'Sugar' vs. 'El Matador' for the featherweight championship can even be remotely possible. Topuria would likely need to defeat Volkanovski in dominant fashion, while O'Malley needs to successfully retain his bantamweight championship next month at UFC 299.

Check out the full video below:

​

---

Sean O'Malley shares his thoughts on Ilia Topuria as a fighter

Although the two have gone back and forth on social media in recent months, Sean O’Malley still has a great deal of respect for Ilia Topuria as a fighter.

During the aforementioned appearance, the reigning UFC bantamweight champion shared his thoughts on 'El Matador' and why he wants to move up to 145 pounds and fight him. He mentioned that Topuria is a very dangerous fighter and holds him in high regard. He said:

​

"When I think of whose some of the most skilled fighters I've ever watched, Ilia's up there, Ilia's f***ing dangerous. He's one of the best I feel like all-round martial artists."

Tweet regarding Sean O'Malley's comments about Topuria [Image courtesy: @mma_orbit - X]

​