Sean O’Malley has laid out how he ended up facing Aiemann Zahabi on the upcoming UFC White House card while openly wondering where he now stands in the bantamweight title picture.
O’Malley, who became UFC bantamweight champion and later lost his belt to Merab Dvalishvili before receiving an immediate rematch, said he first pushed for a different opponent for this next outing. “At first, I asked for Petr [Yan],” O’Malley said, noting he holds a win over Yan from 2022.
“They said no. They didn’t say any reason, they didn’t say anything. They just said he’s not available. Then they offered me Aiemann and I said yeah. To be honest, I was trying to fight Aiemann my last fight and they said no. They gave me Song [Yadong],” O’Malley explained.
“It’s kind of funny, people are acting like it’s my decision. I wanted to fight Aiemann last time and they said no, they gave me Song. I wanted to fight Petr, they said no. They gave me Aiemann. UFC does what UFC does and there’s a reason they’re the UFC. So here we are. I’m excited about the matchup.”
Looking ahead, O’Malley is uncertain if a win over Zahabi will push him back into a title shot, especially with Dvalishvili’s recent run. “I don’t know if a KO will put me in front of Merab. If it does, great. If it doesn’t, I’ll wait for them to fight and kind of go from there… I’m not too focused on it, not too worried about it… But yeah, 100% focus on Aiemann.”
