Sean O’Malley has said he is excited to steal the spotlight from Canelo Alvarez on a stacked weekend of combat sports in September with both men scheduled to fight within 24 hours of each other.
It was announced last month by UFC CEO Dana White that Merab Dvalishvili, the current number one contender in the UFC’s bantamweight division, would be the next opponent for O’Malley’s second title defence.
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O’Malley defeated Marlon ‘Chito’ Vera via unanimous decision to retain his belt at UFC 299 in Miami.
The pair will come face to face as part of a championship doubleheader at ‘The Sphere’ in Las Vegas, Nevada on September 15, 2024. Alexa Grasso also faces Valentina Shevchenko for the women’s flyweight title as the co-main event on the same card at UFC 306 which is branded as Riyadh Season Noche UFC for sponsorship reasons.
Canelo Alvarez returns to the ring to defend his undisputed super middleweight championship against WBA mandatory challenger Edgar Berlanga just a few hours before O’Malley’s appearance in the octagon at UFC 306.
The bout will also take place in Las Vegas at the T-Mobile Arena, which has left the current UFC bantamweight champion thirsty to steer all of the media headlines away from the Mexican superstar.
Speaking on his podcast TimboSugaShow, O’Malley said: “When it comes to Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, who are they talking about? Are they talking about Canelo, are they talking about the boxing fight, or are they talking about the absolute dominating, beautiful, masterful, masterclass performance I put on Merab and the viral knockout that came with it.
“That’s what excites me. The competition of who they are talking about on Sunday, Monday, Tuesday. Who stole the headlines!”
O’Malley’s incredible knockout win over Aljamain Sterling at UFC 292 has amassed more than 10 million views on the UFC’s official YouTube channel.
Sterling had held the bantamweight title for over two years and won nine straight fights, including three title defences, before he faced O’Malley in Boston in August 2023.
“I’m so excited for this fight, I wasn’t actually very excited for the Aljo [Aljamain Sterling] fight, I was stressed because of my rib and my training camp wasn’t the best,” O’Malley added.
“I’m feeling good for this fight, I love this matchup, he’s [Dvalishvili] on a ten-fight win streak. It’s a big fight, it’s at The Sphere and it’s in competition with boxing which adds an extra little layer.”
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Dvalishvili, 33, has picked up impressive wins over big names in the UFC like Jose Aldo and Petr Yan. He lost on his UFC debut in December 2017 and again in his second four months later, before embarking on a 10-fight win streak.
In a video posted in August 2023, current UFC bantamweight Henry Cejudo–whose last two fights were both defeats to Dvalishvili and Sterling–claimed that O’Malley’s clash with Sterling sold between 300,000 and 350,000 pay-per-views.
Sterling also commented on the numbers in a YouTube video of his own, he said: “I got the Pay-Per-View numbers and was going through it like, ‘These are the numbers that this guy [O’Malley] was trying to say he’s this big PPV star? Oh my god.”
Canelo’s last fight was an all Mexican showdown in which he won via unanimous decision against Jaime Munguia. It has been reported that Canelo has drawn well over 10 million PPV buys in his career with an average of just over 800,000 per event.
Canelo has responded to the two events clashing in September, saying that the UFC’s PPV numbers will not do better than his.
He said: “Canelo is just different, I don’t care if the UFC is there. When Canelo fights it’s different.”
Sean O’Malley has said he is excited to steal the spotlight from Canelo Alvarez on a stacked weekend of combat sports in September with both men scheduled to fight within 24 hours of each other.
It was announced last month by UFC CEO Dana White that Merab Dvalishvili, the current number one contender in the UFC’s bantamweight division, would be the next opponent for O’Malley’s second title defence.
2
O’Malley defeated Marlon ‘Chito’ Vera via unanimous decision to retain his belt at UFC 299 in Miami.
The pair will come face to face as part of a championship doubleheader at ‘The Sphere’ in Las Vegas, Nevada on September 15, 2024. Alexa Grasso also faces Valentina Shevchenko for the women’s flyweight title as the co-main event on the same card at UFC 306 which is branded as Riyadh Season Noche UFC for sponsorship reasons.
Canelo Alvarez returns to the ring to defend his undisputed super middleweight championship against WBA mandatory challenger Edgar Berlanga just a few hours before O’Malley’s appearance in the octagon at UFC 306.
The bout will also take place in Las Vegas at the T-Mobile Arena, which has left the current UFC bantamweight champion thirsty to steer all of the media headlines away from the Mexican superstar.
Speaking on his podcast TimboSugaShow, O’Malley said: “When it comes to Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, who are they talking about? Are they talking about Canelo, are they talking about the boxing fight, or are they talking about the absolute dominating, beautiful, masterful, masterclass performance I put on Merab and the viral knockout that came with it.
“That’s what excites me. The competition of who they are talking about on Sunday, Monday, Tuesday. Who stole the headlines!”
O’Malley’s incredible knockout win over Aljamain Sterling at UFC 292 has amassed more than 10 million views on the UFC’s official YouTube channel.
Sterling had held the bantamweight title for over two years and won nine straight fights, including three title defences, before he faced O’Malley in Boston in August 2023.
“I’m so excited for this fight, I wasn’t actually very excited for the Aljo [Aljamain Sterling] fight, I was stressed because of my rib and my training camp wasn’t the best,” O’Malley added.
“I’m feeling good for this fight, I love this matchup, he’s [Dvalishvili] on a ten-fight win streak. It’s a big fight, it’s at The Sphere and it’s in competition with boxing which adds an extra little layer.”
2
Dvalishvili, 33, has picked up impressive wins over big names in the UFC like Jose Aldo and Petr Yan. He lost on his UFC debut in December 2017 and again in his second four months later, before embarking on a 10-fight win streak.
In a video posted in August 2023, current UFC bantamweight Henry Cejudo–whose last two fights were both defeats to Dvalishvili and Sterling–claimed that O’Malley’s clash with Sterling sold between 300,000 and 350,000 pay-per-views.
Sterling also commented on the numbers in a YouTube video of his own, he said: “I got the Pay-Per-View numbers and was going through it like, ‘These are the numbers that this guy [O’Malley] was trying to say he’s this big PPV star? Oh my god.”
Canelo’s last fight was an all Mexican showdown in which he won via unanimous decision against Jaime Munguia. It has been reported that Canelo has drawn well over 10 million PPV buys in his career with an average of just over 800,000 per event.
Canelo has responded to the two events clashing in September, saying that the UFC’s PPV numbers will not do better than his.
He said: “Canelo is just different, I don’t care if the UFC is there. When Canelo fights it’s different.”
