Sean O’Malley feels Henry Cejudo vs. Aljamain Sterling at UFC 288 could serve better as a non-PPV Fight Night
Following his win over former champion Petr Yan last October, it was widely expected that Sean O’Malley would fight for the UFC bantamweight title in his next bout. However, that hasn’t come to fruition yet.
Instead, the promotion’s next bantamweight title clash will take place at UFC 288 next month and will see current champion Aljamain Sterling face off with former titleholder Henry Cejudo.
Sterling vs. Cejudo is officially the headline fight for UFC 288. https://t.co/SIFsTylTAu
The fight between ‘The Funk Master’ and ‘Triple C’ makes sense from a certain standpoint. After all, Cejudo never lost the title in the octagon, instead relinquishing it when he announced his retirement in 2020 following a win over Dominick Cruz.
After defending his UFC bantamweight title, @HenryCejudo unexpectedly announced his retirement from the sport of MMA 🤯 #UFC249 https://t.co/5jIhrp4LsC
However, the booking clearly doesn’t sit well with O’Malley, who spoke out about UFC 288 on the latest edition of his Podcast The Timbo Sugarshow. ‘Sugar’ suggested, in fact, that the event, which is scheduled for pay-per-view, instead be turned into a Fight Night.
“I heard my own thought tell my own brain that they’re doing UFC 288 as a Fight Night...first time in history that they have a UFC title on the line for a Fight Night.”
When pushed on this, O’Malley elaborated further, claiming he’d heard people suggesting they wouldn’t be willing to pay for the event. He then spoke about the fight between Sterling and Cejudo.
“I’m gonna watch Henry vs. Aljo...it’s a very important fight for me. For casuals? Aljamain vs. Henry, I don’t think it does it for them.”
He then guessed that the event would not draw more than 200k buys on pay-per-view.
O’Malley was, however, mistaken about the UFC not headlining Fight Night events with title fights. In fact, Cejudo himself defended the promotion’s flyweight title against then-bantamweight champion TJ Dillashaw at Fight Night 143 in 2019.
When is Sean O’Malley fighting next?
Sean O’Malley has not fought since his victory over Petr Yan, which came at UFC 280 last October. ‘Sugar’ defeated the former bantamweight champion via split decision in a controversial call, although he stood by his win in a look back at it earlier this year.
Since his win over ‘No Mercy’, O’Malley has not been booked in another fight. In an Instagram post in late 2022 he suggested that he’d like to fight for the bantamweight title in July at the latest.
Last week, meanwhile, saw Merab Dvalishvili suggest that he’d be interested in a bout with ‘Sugar’, but the Georgian also suggested that he’d been told that the UFC were saving Sean O’Malley for a future title shot.