Sean O'Malley reveals why he rejected Chechnyan politician Ramzan Kadyrov's invitation to visit Russia
The No.1 bantamweight contender Sean O'Malley claimed that he rejected Ramzan Kadyrov's invitation to visit Russia. O'Malley's brother Daniel O'Malley, who is the co-host on the Bromalley podcast, brought up the fact that the Chechen dictator also invited 'Sugar.'
Here is what the bantamweight fighter had to say about rejecting the invite and the reasons for doing so:
"The reason we never really ended up going [to Chechnya] is because we were saying like, who is this for? And then we didn't really get an answer. So, I'm like, 'F*** that!' Imran [Jawaid], you know, I listen to Imran's advice and Imran was like, 'Hey, I don't have a good feeling about this. Let's not move forward with that.'
Skip to 36:50 for Sean O'Malley's response:
Sean O'Malley's brother alluded to the recent meeting where Ramzan Kadyrov invited Kamaru Usman, Henry Cejudo, and Justin Gaethje to attend his son's birthday. The trio was seen testing firearms in a military compound in Chechnya. 'Sugar' said that Cejudo accepted the invite from Kadyrov because he needed the money. He continued saying:
"They went over to Chechnya? And the guy [Kadyrov] is like a murderer, basically. The top dog. Like, [he's] best friends with [Vladimir] Putin. He's not a good person, and that's who they went there [for] to his kid's birthday party. And, that's where I got invited to go. And, yeah, I've heard that they're getting some backlash for going."
Justin Gaethje claimed that he "never met the guy" when referring to Kadyrov after Barstool Sports' Dave Portnoy called him out following his criticism of Paddy Pimblett's UFC 282 performance.
People are telling me @Justin_Gaethje was recently seen hanging out with a warlord accused of brutal crimes against humanity so its hypocritical for him to say we look bad for supporting Paddy when he supports a warlord. I’m gonna take high road + not mention it. #daveyhighroad twitter.com/justin_gaethje…
Sean O'Malley responds to Henry Cejudo comparing him to Paddy Pimblett
There is no love lost between Sean O'Malley and former two-weight champion Henry Cejudo. The Olympic gold medallist took to Twitter to draw comparisons between O'Malley and Liverpool star Paddy Pimblett.
Hey @SugaSeanMMA You should fight Paddy… the judges won’t know who to rob. twitter.com/espnmma/status…
The tweet was in response to O'Malley posting that he wanted to fight in July and that Aljamain Sterling and Henry Cejudo should fight in April if he were to return next summer. In response to the post by Cejudo, O'Malley put out a tweet telling 'Triple C' to make me a burrito.
After criticizing Cejudo for his visit to Chechnya, O'Malley said the following about him in response to his aforementioned post:
"Dude, you literally lost to Demetrious Johnson, not only once but twice. He f****d you up in the first one. You guys had a close fight in the second one. Everyone thought that you lost, so don't talk about robberies, bud. You're 5'3". Shut up and make me a burrito, Harry!"
O'Malley last fought Petr Yan and beat the Russian fighter at UFC 280 to become the No.1 contender. Pimblett won his fight against Jared Gordon at UFC 282. However, both fighters drew criticism as members of the MMA community observed that their opponents should have won their respective bouts.