Is Cody Garbrandt vs. Sean O’Malley next?
Cody Garbrandt and Sean O’Malley don’t like each other. In fact, these two nearly came to blows at UFC 269 press conference and they weren’t even scheduled to fight one another! Despite the constant trash talk between the former UFC Champions, a fight has never officially been made between the UFC bantamweights. But O’Malley is currently on a two-fight skid. Cody is also on a two-fight skid. The former Bantamweight Champion proposed that he and O’Malley settle their differences inside the octagon.
“I would love to f*ck him up,” Garbrandt told MMA Fighting. “He just always talks shit. I think he has an infatuation with me. He’s so jealous of me and I can’t believe he became a world champion.
“He can’t wrestle for a lick, can’t defend a takedown. I mean, Merab straight bullied him. But he’s been calling me out forever, so I’ve been ready to fight that dude. I’ve got what it takes, I know how to beat this dude. The way that I fight, it’ll be a bad night for him. But that’s up to the UFC — I’ve tagged [Dana White], I tagged him in it. If that’s the next fight they want to do, I think that’s going to be a great pay-per-view fight, good drawing.
“He’s got a good fanbase, but they’re younger, you know, the Twitch people, the video games, but I’m a dog. I would love that fight.”
This isn’t the first time Garbrandt has called out O’Malley.
In 2022, O’Malley addressed potentially fighting the 34-year-old and he made it clear that he just wasn’t interested in the match-up.
"Dude, Cody's not getting that fight," O'Malley said on his YouTube channel. "When he said it, you could see in his voice. He's like, 'Oh, I want.' But that fight's not happening. ... It doesn't make sense for him to say that. You wonder if that's CTE (chronic traumatic encephalopathy). He's been knocked out five times in the last two years. That fight's not happening – at least not next. ... It just doesn't make sense, dude. It literally just doesn't make sense.
"I go out there and knock out Cody, it's like he's 1-8. I lose to Cody, I lose to someone who's looked at as kind of who sucks now."
Could Sean’s mind change now that they are in the same boat? It should be interesting to see if O’Malley responds to Garbrandt’s latest callout.