When Dana White said, “Sean O’Malley isn’t gonna be a star. He is a star,” he firmly believed that he had the next Conor McGregor in his hands after his UFC 292 title win. However, that statement aged poorly as ‘Suga’ went on to amass a couple of back-to-back defeats against Merab Dvalishvili, and that too, in dominant fashion. So, it’s back to the drawing board for O’Malley, but it appears that his next fight is against someone from the top 5.

Despite his back-to-back losses, Sean O’Malley has still been listed as the #1 contender in the bantamweight division. So, it’s understandable if Dana White chooses to pit him against someone in the top 5. Given that Umar Nurmagomedov, who’s ranked #3, has a match coming up next weekend, the only other top contenders he’s yet to fight are Cory Sandhagen, who recently fought for the belt, and Song Yadong, who seems to be the next opponent for ‘Suga’ Sean.

Sean O’Malley to fight Song Yadong? Chinese native leaks plans

Recently, Song Yadong, who’s 3-2 in his last five fights, went live on stream with fellow Chinese UFC fighter Sumudaerji on the Douyin app. While chatting with the fans and answering their queries, he happened to slip Dana White’s plans for his next fight, claiming that he’s likely to fight Sean O’Malley early next year. There’s no official word on that fight yet from the promotion’s end, but Yadong claims that the fight could take place at either UFC 324 or UFC 325.

Well, Sean O’Malley is a pretty big star in the eyes of Dana White when compared to other stars on the roster. There is a possibility that he may not have wanted these plans coming out before they shared an official announcement, which means that there could be some consequences for Song Yadong to face for this mistake. Although there haven’t been any instances where the CEO publicly punished fighters for such incidents, nobody can be sure what happens behind the curtain.

Also, Dana White had previously banned Ariel Helwani for leaking former heavyweight champion Brock Lesnar‘s UFC 200 comeback fight. This, of course, is a pretty well-documented incident, as the veteran journalist faced a ban from attending UFC events. Song Yadong may need to be cautious with what he says so as not to rub the UFC CEO the wrong way.

It doesn’t take much to get on Dana White’s bad side. The fighters need to avoid the grey areas, and if you want an example of when a fighter faced the CEO’s wrath, we can take a look at Paul Daley, who was permanently banned from the promotion after sucker-punching Josh Koscheck at UFC 113. Coming back to Sean O’Malley, the former champion recently proclaimed Merab Dvalishvili’s greatness after his win over Cory Sandhagen. However, he still believes that he’s the only one who can beat the current version of ‘The Machine’.

O’Malley is confident that he’s the only one who can beat Merab Dvalishvili

The former bantamweight champion is quite certain that Merab Dvalishvili is not going to drop a decision loss against anyone in the division. His endless gas tank helps him perform at his very best throughout the entire 25 minutes. The only weakness that O’Malley has observed is the gaps in Dvalishvili’s standup game. ‘Suga’ is also certain that he is the only fighter with the ability to find those holes and exploit them to knock out the Georgian star, but he did not hesitate in calling him the bantamweight GOAT.

“I don’t see anyone really beating Merab anytime soon. He needs to be clipped. He needs to be knocked out and put to sleep to beat him. I just don’t see anyone other than myself being able to do that,” Sean O’Malley stated on his YouTube channel. “Merab has cemented himself greatest bantamweight of all time, obviously. He’s on a crazy win streak right now, 14… He’s an absolute f—ing machine. What a nickname for him, too, just ‘The Machine.'”

Well, anything can happen in MMA, and despite Sean O’Malley losing to Merab Dvalishvili twice, he could come back with a win if they fight another time. But if the plan for his next fight against Song Yadong is true, a win for the Chinese native could propel him to title contender status. The only thing we need to watch out for is whether Yadong faces Dana White’s wrath after leaking the fight plans. What do you think? Drop your comments below.