After serving a two-year suspension from USADA, Sean O’Malley made an explosive return to the octagon when he got a first-round knockout win over Jose Quinonez at UFC 248.
As expected, the bantamweight is surely hungry to get back inside the octagon to fight some more; however, the rising star isn’t stressing about his next fight or opponent, as O’Malley is simply concerned with improving his skills each day:
When we’re about two months out, then we’ll talk to the UFC and we’ll figure out opponents,” he said on MMA Fighting’s Eurobash podcast. “If we had an opponent right now, he could break his arm. For me, it’s about getting better right now – it’s not about who we should fight next.”
The bantamweight has certainly heard all the call outs he’s recieved throughout the years, most notably Brian Kelleher, who’s been doing everything in his power to get the attention of the 25-year-old, but O’Malley isn’t focused on the lower tier fighters that say his name:
“I got called out by nine guys when I was out for two years, some of them are going to help my career; fighting someone like Brian Kelleher is not going to do much. I think he’s 10-5 or something like that. He looks like he smokes cigarettes – he’s not going to do anything for my career. I’m definitely looking for smart fights - people that are going to up me. I go in and smoke [Kelleher], they’ll be like, ‘Cool, that kid sucks.’ It’s pointless to talk about guys like that.”
Check out the full podcast where O’Malley talks about being compared to Conor McGregor, his love for jiu-jitsu, and so much more regarding his career.