After losing his belt to Merab Dvalishvili at UFC 306, Sean O’Malley is taking it easy and enjoying a break. However, will this stop other fighters from calling him out for banter? Certainly not. The beef between former dual-weight champion Conor McGregor and Sean O’Malley has been going on for quite some time, and it seems that despite ‘Suga’ initially backing the banter, ‘The Notorious’ will not leave him alone.

In his recent live stream, Conor McGregor watered down on his banter with Sean O’Malley but he also asserted that he would like to witness his comeback after the defeat, “I don’t know, he stayed in your man—a bad stylistic match for him. I want to see him back. I like Sean; Sean’s all right in my book, so I want to see Sean back. Job’s not yet,” said Conor McGregor.

It seems that Sean O’Malley has his own opinion on McGregor’s statement. While in conversation on the ‘Join The Lobby’ podcast, the hosts showed McGregor’s video of ‘Suga’ to which he said, “No, me and Conor have been going back and forth here, there, whatever. At the end of the day, I’m always going to… he played an important role in my career, so it’s always going to be, you know, an inspiration to me at some point. Right now, I wouldn’t say he necessarily is. I think he does want to get back to it. I think there’s a lot more going on behind the scenes with Conor than people know.” Well, the story doesn’t end here as O’Malley’s words have found their way to Conor McGregor’s ears.

Reacting to the confession, the former dual weight champion took to his X handle to add a statement praising Sean O’Malley, “Sean is a fighting legend! UFC champion and an incredible superstar! I would love, love, love to see, and I can set it up fully, himself and his long time coach, Tim Welch, do a stint in Ireland. A 4 week run at SBG Ireland under Johns coaching and I am telling you he would regain his title.”

He further added, “He has a shot at regaining it still for sure, but for himself, and also his coach to spend a good month, to begin with, not a long time, but a good solid month under coach Kav at SBG and they would take heaps of knowledge back with them and onward to regain the Gold. I would love to see it!” 

No matter how much Sean O’Malley beefs up with Conor McGregor, it cannot be hidden that he is one of his idols. Interestingly, the former bantamweight champion is looking to emulate what McGregor did back when he was at his peak.

Sean O’Malley explains how Conor McGregor is a part of his gameplan

At the ‘Join The Lobby’ podcast, the former bantamweight champion, Sean O’Malley was asked a rather important question. The host of the show asked O’Malley, “Is there a certain accomplishment that you have in your mind that you haven’t reached yet?” ‘Suga’ took a breather and stated that he would have liked to have a few more title defenses, “I’d like to get some more title defenses. The whole champ-champ thing, I was kind of pushing for that but got more hate than anything.”

He further added, “You know, I was calling out Ilia, Max, whoever won. I want super fights; I want big fights. I want people to get excited about big fights. Ilia vs. Max, to me, is a huge fight—I’m super excited about that. I want people to feel that way about my fights. Me fighting Ilia or Max would have given you that almost Conor-like feel, like, ‘Oh shit, I cannot wait for that fight.’ That’s what I want to do—I want big fights.”

When you are someone as influential as Conor McGregor then it is just normal that people would admire you but when your admirers achieve the same greatness as you then the feeling is something else. Sean O’Malley is looking to clinch a second title to his name but will he be able to do it? Only time will tell. What are your thoughts on the hubbub? State your opinion in the comments below.