Chael Sonnen thinks UFC bantamweight champion Sean O'Malley is the No. 1 star in MMA right now.
Sonnen hasn’t forgotten about the sport’s biggest draw, former UFC two-division champion Conor McGregor, but he isn’t considering him an active fighter. Since McGregor last competed, O’Malley (17-1 MMA, 10-1 UFC) has fought five times, capturing the bantamweight title with a knockout of Aljamain Sterling then defending it with a shutout of Marlon Vera.
“O’Malley is the biggest star in our sport right now,” Sonnen said on his YouTube channel. “And ‘Red Panty Night’ is still real. Conor’s not in the sport; he’s not even licensed. Conor could not walk in and fight tonight if he wanted to.
“I’m just sharing with you who’s in the sport, it’s one of those things. Conor has no more of a claim to this sport right now than (Georges) St-Pierre or Khabib (Nurmagomedov). In fact, St-Pierre and Khabib have attended more UFCs in the last year than Conor.”
O’Malley defends his bantamweight title against Merab Dvalishvili (17-4 MMA, 10-2 UFC) in the UFC 306 main event Sept. 14 at Sphere in Las Vegas. He opened up as a betting underdog against Dvalishvili, but oddsmakers currently have the fight as a pick’em.
Sonnen is surprised to see that O’Malley was initially the underdog after what he called the greatest performance ever at bantamweight vs. Vera.
“I feel that O’Malley, as the biggest star, who’s the hardest working guy outside of the cage that that division has ever seen, and a top five in the sport’s history,” Sonnen said. “He might be No. 1. He is a top five in history of hardest working guys outside of the cage. For him to have landed this rocket ship in this position and whoever gets in the passenger seat, and now you’re telling me (oddsmakers) believe that he’s two-and-a-half times more likely to lose than he is to win?
“And even if he wins, he draws into a guy (Nurmagomedov) with a similar disastrous style? That is a lot for a young man to take on, but that seems to be exactly where O’Malley does his best work. That seems to be, when that house is on fire, and he’s right on the edge and people aren’t believing him and he’s got to stay sharp and if he’s not sharp he’s going to fall into a bed of needles, that seems to be where Sean O’Malley performs his finest.”
For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 306.
