Former UFC bantamweight champion Sean O’Malley has admitted that he was left underwhelmed by the ‘weird’ fight announcements for UFC 324 on January 24th next year, which will mark the start of the Paramount+ broadcasting deal.
In particular, O’Malley suspects that that Justin Gaethje and Paddy Pimblett fighting for the interim lightweight title in the main event wasn’t the UFC’s original plan.
“I was so disappointed in the announcement. … The No. 1 fight promoter in the world absolutely brings the energy when he goes on live on Insta or YouTube, he brings the energy,” O’Malley said on his YouTube channel. “This one felt weird. My theory is it was supposed to be Paddy vs. Ilia, that’s what was supposed to happen and they were really trying to get that fight to happen and they couldn’t do it.
“I think it was supposed to be Paddy vs. Ilia, and that didn’t go through, and Dana was not happy about it.”
Meanwhile, there’s been some controversy about whether the co-main event women’s bantamweight title fight between Kayla Harrison and Amanda Nunes should actually be headlining the show, but O’Malley thinks the bout order makes sense.
“This is a g*ddamn business,” O’Malley said. “They are not going to put Amanda Nunes vs. Kayla Harrison—it’s a big fight, women’s history, yes, I get it—we want to fight Paddy vs. Gaethje at the end of the card. … [Harrison and Nunes] are co-main, I like that. I should be opening up the pay-per-view. I should be ending the prelims, but I think the card is where it is and I think that’s OK. Justin vs. Paddy, that’s an interesting fight.”
O’Malley also bemoaned the fact that as things stand it looks like he’ll take the third spot on the line-up against Song Yadong, despite the fact that he’s been a pay-per-view headliner in his previous four fights.
“I’m not even the co-main, I am falling off hard. What’s next? Prelims? Early prelims? G*ddamn it, it’s not going good for the Suga Show,” O’Malley said as he tried to laugh off his current downward slide. “I’m about to be fighting at ICF [Intense Championship Fighting] in Great Falls, the stock of the Suga Show is down bad right now.
“It’s not good. It’s not looking good, but you’re only as good as your last fight, so I go out there, win, we’re back.”
