Former champion Sean O’Malley is stepping up his campaign to be the next challenger for Petr Yan’s bantamweight title by describing their potential rematch as being the biggest fight ever in the division.

The 31-year-old O’Malley acknowledges that it’s been expected that Yan’s next fight would be a rematch against the man he just dethroned, Merab Dvalishvili, but given that nothing is booked yet,

“I’ve been hearing Petr and Merab are going to fight for a long time — still nothing booked,” O’Malley said on the Pound For Pound podcast. “I don’t know if it’s Merab’s nose or Petr’s back. It sucks. One of those guys is obviously holding it up, and I don’t think it’s Merab. I think Merab would fight with his arm cut off. So, I think Petr is probably just dealing with some injuries.”

If it is a Yan injury that’s holding up the fight, O’Malley admits that he understands why.

“You can’t fight Merab on half-a**ed camps,” O’Malley said. “You need a full, full camp. You need to be fully healthy to fight Merab, and Petr probably knows that.”

And while there’s still some doubt about what’s next for Yan, O’Malley is making sure to talk up the possibility of a big rematch between himself and Yan, who beat by split-decision back in 2022.

“If they want me vs. Petr next, I do think me vs. Petr Yan 2, rematch, is the biggest fight in bantamweight history,” O’Malley said. “I think it’s the biggest one you could possibly make right now, and the UFC would be risking it by making Merab vs. Petr.”

It’s understandable why O’Malley is trying to skip the queue as while there’s a lot of interest in him going up against Yan again, if Merab does get the opportunity and beats the current champion then that would leave ‘Suga’ in limbo since he’s already lost to him in two title fights in the past couple of years.