After Sean O’Malley defeated Marlon ‘Chito’ Vera in his first title defense at UFC 299 earlier this month, ‘Suga’ called out newly-minted featherweight champion Ilia Topuria, to the chagrin of fans and #1 ranked Merab Dvalishvili, who is on a ten-fight win streak.

UFC CEO Dana White confirmed at the UFC 299 post-fight press conference that O’Malley will not be facing Topuria next and indicated Dvalishvili would be the Montana native’s next opponent. While there were doubts about who O’Malley will face next, the 135-pound king has given indications about his next moves in a recent interview.

Sean O’Malley says Dvalishvili is his ‘likely’ next opponent

Sean O’Malley joined former champion and UFC commentator Michael Bisping for an interview on the latter’s YouTube channel, where he was asked about who his next title defense would be against. The flamboyant bantamweight indicated that it would be Merab Dvalsihvili albeit not definitely. “It’s definitely leaning towards Merab [Dvalishvili],” he told Bisping.

O’Malley had finally called out Dvalishvili on ‘X’ for a fight in 2025, writing “I WANT MARAB. 2025 will be legendary.” The fact that O’Malley wanted to fight ‘The Machine’ in 2025 despite not being injured is being seen as as delaying tactic aimed at avoiding the Georgian since a lot can change in the UFC in a year.

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On the Topuria fight, the Montana native felt that it was still a potential fight on the horizon that could be something special if both men could successfully defend their respective titles. “The Ilia fight, you know, that’s a potential big fight someday if I go out there and win a few more (and) Ilia, you know, keeps doing what he’s doing and wins a few more, you know that could be a massive fight end of next year. I would say if we both go out there and do what we need to do, that could be a massive fight someday,” O’Malley said.

The champion also made clear that although “a lot of people say I’m ducking him,” he actually would not “mind that fight.” O’Malley felt that Dvalishvili with his world-class wrestling and endurance was “scary in his own way” but was confident he would ultimately prevail since he had “knocked those kind of people out [before]”. While O’Malley’s comments to Bisping may make it seem he is not very enthusiastic at the prospect of facing Topuria, he seems to have no choice after Ilia Topuria’s response to his call-out.

Topuria wants ‘Suga’ to fight Dvalishvili first

After Ilia Topuria defeated the man most consider the featherweight GOAT in Alexander Volkanvoski at their UFC 298 clash, he has become one of the biggest stars in the UFC. After defeating ‘Volk’, Topuria took to X and floated a potential fight with Sean O’Malley, with whom he has been feuding over the past year.

Since ‘Suga’ called out ‘El Matador’, the Spaniard has come out and advised the bantamweight champion to fight fellow Georgian Merab Dvalishvili, officially the number one contender for the bantamweight title, first. “Suga, congrats.. Was a beautiful performance! There is a fight chasing you with Merab.. Get that done first,” Topuria had tweeted.

While Topuria and O’Malley will not be fighting each other any time soon, their fight will only get more hyped as time goes on, provided both keep winning. And if nothing unexpected happens, fans can expect to see O’Malley fight Merab Dvalishvili in his next fight. What do you think?

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