Sean O’Malley placed himself in the same cadre as UFC White House headliners. O’Malley (19-3 MMA, 11-3 UFC) got his wish of being part of the White House event next month. He will take on Aiemann Zahabi (14-2 MMA, 8-2 UFC) in the historic outing. Lightweight champion Ilia Topuria and interim champion Justin Gaethje will officially headline the event. Alex Pereira will face off against Cyril Gane in the official co-main. For O’Malley, however, the official card designation doesn’t in any way reduce his bout’s worth.
Meanwhile, many fans subtly removed O’Malley’s “star” status after interviewers ignored him during the White House presser. The 31-year-old Bantamweight has likely received fans’ observations and wants to rewrite the narrative as soon as possible.
Sean O’Malley wants fans to stop downplaying his UFC White House role
Kyle Daukaus, Bo Nickal, and Michael Chandler answered multiple questions during the UFC White House presser. However, no interviewer faced Diego Lopes or O’Malley. To be fair to O’Malley, the UFC spent a large chunk of the interview slot working to keep Josh Hokit away from mayhem. Security officials had to intervene in a clash between Hokit and Topuria, which possibly cut short the interview abruptly. However, neither his card placement nor interview situation makes any difference to “Suga”.
“I’m basically in the co-main. [Alex Pereira vs Cyril Gane and Ilia Topuria vs Justin Gaethje] are both main events.
Let’s just call it like it is, I don’t need to keep getting bumped down.”
Bar his “stardom” status, O’Malley isn’t completely adrift in fans’ perspectives about the UFC White House show. He recently admitted that the event’s card disappointed many fans, including himself, who expected grander UFC clashes. Many fans craved a return of Conor McGregor and possibly Jon Jones.
For instance, he suggested a matchup between Charles Oliveira and Arman Tsarukyan to further spice up the show. As of this writing, the UFC has yet to consider O’Malley’s wishes. Most likely, though, he’d make do with giving fans the best excitement possible through his June 14 bout against Zahabi.
