UFC 324 is going to be crazy in the best possible way and is headlined with Paddy Pimblett vs. Justin Gaethje, followed by the monster co-main of Amanda Nunes vs. Kayla Harrison. Fans are still not over with the ecstatic moment of Paddy’s wild TKO victory over Michael Chandler, a fight that clearly marked ‘The Baddy’s’ character as one of the UFC’s most electrifying players.

However, the fight announcement created a bit of a strange feeling and raised some questions as it directly linked Paddy to a feud with Ilia Topuria that has been simmering for a long time. This rivalry of verbal exchanges, bottle-throwing drama, and continuous tension had built up to exploding insults. Many expected Dana White to push this storyline. But the exchange of that high-voltage matchup for Gaethje felt unexpected, and Sean O’Malley did not hesitate in pointing out the uncomfortable halftime introduction that brought this about.

Sean O’Malley believes Paddy Pimblett vs. Ilia Topuria was the real plan

During his latest podcast, Sean O’Malley explained everything while kicking back with his crew and anticipating his return to the bantamweight division fight with Song Yadong at UFC 324. This will be his comeback fight after losing to Merab Dvalishvili, the cardio monster who has been bulldozing the division; hence, momentum is very important.

Despite being focused, Sean still felt it was strange how the UFC 324 reveal was.

“Dana revealed the fights of 324. Paramount. Paddy versus Justin… Dana, the number one fight promoter in the world, definitely brings the energy when he goes live on Insta or YouTube. He brings the energy. This one felt weird.”

If Sean’s antennas went up, you can be sure that something was wrong with the vibe. Then he came up with the theory that the fans have been talking about for months.

“I don’t know if it was the you know my theory is it was supposed to be Paddy versus Ilia. That’s what was supposed to happen, and you know they were really trying to get that fight to happen and they couldn’t do it.”

With the ups and downs between Pimblett and Topuria, the insults, the airport drama, the bottle-throwing. Sean was not demeaning the Gaethje fight; he was merely indicating how the announcement resembled a last-minute switch from a rivalry that was screaming for a cage.

Dana White dragged into chaos after Max Holloway–Charles Oliveira BMF fight appears, then disappears

From the very beginning, UFC 324 has been nothing short of a mess. And now Dana White has become even more involved in the turmoil since the UFC Brazil account has very briefly posted and subsequently deleted what seemed to be a third title fight: Max Holloway vs. Charles Oliveira for the BMF belt.

Although the post was only live for a few minutes, it was enough time for the fans to go crazy and start doubting what the UFC has actually prepared. The now-deleted post, which was in Portuguese, was advertising the fight, saying that it is a clash of “hard-shelled” fighters. The description very well matches Holloway and Oliveira, two competing athletes who consider the damage as non-existing background sound.

Holloway won the BMF title after he took apart Justin Gaethje and Oliveira is still one of the deadliest finishers in the world. The BMF rematch between them is going to be extremely charged with a special kind of energy because their first fight was stopped by an injury to Oliveira, thus creating an unfinished story that the fans have been longing to get back for years.

This is the reason why this “leak” caused such an instant explosion among the fans. The very fact that there was already criticism over UFC 324’s interim lightweight headliner made the idea of Max and Charles finishing the night a total chaos-and-violence-like upgrade that the supporters were asking for.

However, Dana White’s announcement during the NFL Thanksgiving game did not include Holloway–Oliveira making the sudden post and its disappearance even stranger.

Mentions of Max Holloway and Charles Oliveira together are like striking a match in the MMA world that instantaneously ignites the interest. Do it during a card already in trouble, and the volume only gets higher, particularly with Dana White’s name being part of the confusion.