Sean O’Malley believes that if Ilia Topuria loses at UFC 298, it would have a negative impact on his career. Topuria, who has an undefeated record of 14-0 in MMA and 6-0 in the UFC, will be challenging featherweight champion Alexander Volkanovski (26-3 MMA, 13-2 UFC) in the main event on Saturday at the Honda Center in Anaheim, California.
Bantamweight champion O’Malley (17-1 MMA, 9-1 UFC) has expressed his interest in a superfight with Topuria, but Topuria has dismissed the idea. O’Malley respects Topuria’s confidence but believes that he has put himself in a situation where he must win after making bold statements.
“Ilia – will he be able to achieve his goal? Ilia vs. Volk,” O’Malley stated on his show, the TimboSugarShow. “He better hope he does because he’s been talking a lot of trash. He’s even got a documentary and a movie coming out. He’s calling out Conor McGregor. If he loses to Volk, he will become irrelevant. I won’t be calling him out anymore. He should be grateful that I’m talking about him.”
O’Malley’s coach, Tim Welch, has predicted that Volkanovski will win by decision, and O’Malley acknowledges that this is a possibility. However, “The Suga Show” hopes that Topuria will come out victorious to increase their chances of a future fight.
“It’s difficult to bet against Volk, isn’t it?” O’Malley remarked. “But I’m siding with Ilia because I’m going to continue manifesting that fight in Las Vegas in September at the Sphere.”
O’Malley will be facing Marlon Vera in his first title defense at UFC 299 on March 9 in Miami.
According to the Source mmajunkie.usatoday.com