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Sean O'Malley was unsuccessful in his attempt to defend the bantamweight title for the second time as he suffered a unanimous decision loss to Merab Dvalishvili at UFC 306. 'Suga' recently revealed that it will likely be seven to nine months before he makes his return to the octagon leading Henry Cejudo to troll him.
The No. 1-ranked bantamweight took to Instagram on Wednesday to share a video of him putting his belt in a suitcase, captioning the post:
"You can take the belt from me but you can’t take the champ outa me. Not necessarily proud of my performance but proud of my mindset. Lost first 2 rounds and came back to win the 3rd and 5th. Had his b**ch ass running from me in the 5th. Going to be out realistically 7-9 months. Going to get healthy and work on some things. Love you guys, love this sport, love the UFC. I’ll be back. ✌🏽"
The former double champ quote tweeted ESPN MMA's X post of the footage, adding:
"Damn sorry about the surgery…hope your v**ina feels better. Can’t wait for your transition"
Check out Sean O'Malley's announcement and Henry Cejudo's response below:
Cejudo was the most vocal of several bantamweights to call for the opportunity to face O'Malley, who now holds the top contender spot in the rankings. The two have exchanged words on multiple occasions in the past, making it easy to envision the two former champions sharing the octagon.
Former UFC welterweight claims Sean O'Malley has the 'Conor McGregor' curse
Sean O'Malley has often compared himself to Conor McGregor, noting that he hopes to overtake the former double champ as the biggest star in the sport. Alan Jouban recently shared a different aspect that he believes the two are similar. Speaking to Damon Martin of MMA Fighting, the former UFC welterweight noted that the two are similar in their striking ability and star power before adding:
"O'Malley also has the Conor McGregor curse where when he is not the hammer and he becomes the nail, and if that opponent starts to style on them, when they're not styling and they're getting styled on, it defeats them. It defeats them. We haven't seen that. Sean O'Malley is used to doing fadeaway threes after the knockout."
Jouban continued:
"Sean O'Malley is in the middle of a fight dribbling the basketball, right? The best sniper, the precision. When he's getting taken down and Merab's kissing him on the head and he's doing the lookaways for the kicks, he was getting styled on and the mentality, the mental warfare, the subtleties there for a guy that's a star, when somebody steals your shine, it kills those type of guys."
Check out Alan Jouban's comments on Sean O'Malley and Conor McGregor below:
Jouban claimed that both fighters fall apart if the shine is taken away from them. He noted that Merab Dvalishvili was able to fight the perfect fight from a physical and mental standpoint.
