Newly-crowned UFC bantamweight champion Sean O’Malley has expressed a desire to try his hand at boxing in the future, but one of the sport’s rising stars warned him to stay in his lane.
Ryan Garcia sent a succinct message on social media to “Suga,” which prompted a response from O’Malley that referenced his knockout loss to Gervonta “Tank” Davis in April. Garcia followed up by challenging him to what he feels would be a “tuneup fight.”
In May, O’Malley said in an interview with GQ Sports that he would be interested in a marquee boxing match at some point down the line, and he named both Garcia and Davis as potential opponents.
“If I ever do a boxing match I think it’ll be similar to when Conor [McGregor] fought Floyd [Mayweather]. When it’s the pay-per-view king in the UFC vs another pay-per-view king in boxing,” O’Malley said at the time (h/t Harry Kettle of BJPenn.com). “So, Ryan Garcia, Gervonta Davis, those are two guys I could see myself potentially boxing in five, six years. I truly believe I could beat one of those guys. It would be a very difficult challenge.”
Whereas Garcia believes an MMA fighter would have trouble taking on a boxer, O’Malley thinks the opposite.
“MMA fighting is definitely harder than boxing,” he said. “That’s the reason you don’t see any boxers going over to MMA.”
O’Malley claimed the UFC 135-pound title with a second-round TKO victory over Aljamain Sterling in the main event of UFC 292 on Saturday. The 28-year-old is considered to be one of the brightest young stars in MMA, and he has the chance to reign atop the bantamweight division for a long time.
While a fight between Garcia and O’Malley is unlikely to happen anytime soon, the UFC champ already has his eyes set on his next opponent. During his post-fight interview, he called out Marlon “Chito” Vera, who was the last fighter to defeat him in the Octagon three years ago. Vera also fought at UFC 292 and was victorious, and O’Malley called for them to face each other in December in Las Vegas.