Morning Report: Sean O’Malley: ‘They’d scratch that title fight before my fight’ with Petr Yan at UFC 280

Sean O’Malley intends to make a statement at UFC 280.

The promotion’s big upcoming return to Abu Dhabi will essentially feature two possibly unofficial tournaments at lightweight and bantamweight. With both divisions’ titles on the line in the last two bouts, top contenders square off on the main card leading up to them. In one of the more surprising matchups, O’Malley faces former champion, Petr Yan, as he aims for his biggest career win to date.

Since entering the octagon through Dana White’s Contender Series, “Suga” has been one of the brighter young stars at 135-pounds. His performances accompanied by his personality have led O’Malley to a near-flawless record and if worse came to worse, he wouldn’t expect the UFC to keep him off the card if things started to fall apart.

“No [they haven’t mentioned anything about being a replacement],” O’Malley said on his YouTube channel regarding the main event. “I don’t know. What if T.J. [Dillashaw] f****** stubs his toe or sits on a needle or something randomly happens? I don’t know, you never know what could happen. Maybe me and Petr will have to fight for that spot and just fight the guy next.

“They wouldn’t do that to me. They would scratch that title fight before they’d scratch my fight, if I had to guess. I’m a bigger star, dude. And that’s just a total guess, obviously, my opinions are very extreme and some people don’t like them.”

A win for O’Malley over Yan would launch him directly to the front of the top contender line. In the official UFC rankings, the 27-year-old is currently No. 10 while Yan sits at No. 1.

In his career, Yan has only tasted defeat to two men, one of which was current champion, Aljamain Sterling, in two of his last three outings. Whether or not a Yan win actually earns O’Malley a title opportunity in such a deep bantamweight division remains to be seen. What is likely, however, is that the Helena, Montana native would certainly be destined for main event status from here on out.

“I’m very close to a point where I’m not gonna be anything but a main event,” O’Malley said. “And I’m not gonna be a main event that makes a couple $100,000. I’m gonna be a main event that’s making millions.

“Some people can go main event cards and be the ‘star’ of the show and s***, but I’m still getting paid more than them. So, when I’m main event, when I’m the star of the show, I want it and I think I will be rewarded. I want them to be like, ‘Damn, this motherf****** earned this much money.’ So, I don’t want to be main eventing like some of these dorks and getting $100,000 or whatever.”

Future. Jake Paul confident Floyd Mayweather fight happens, but prefers pro bout to ‘take his undefeated record’

Superstar. Sean O’Malley: Impressive win over Petr Yan at UFC 280 is one step closer to ‘Conor level’ stardom

Target. Scott Coker: Fedor Emelianenko ‘has his bullseye on Ryan Bader’ for retirement fight, but Anderson Silva would be ‘unbelievable’

Belief. Anthony Smith says ‘I’m done doubting’ Charles Oliveira, explains how he beats Islam Makhachev at UFC 280

Moment. Frank Mir wants retirement fight on card headlined by daughter Bella

Memories. Pride Never Die: Celebrating the 25th anniversary of Pride FC with 25 of its best moments, part 2

Prep. Viviane Araujo doubled therapy sessions ahead of first UFC main event with Alexa Grasso

Farewell. Aleksei Oleinik removed from UFC roster after completing most recent contract

Grasso vs. Araujo promo.

Free fight.

Moments you wouldn’t believe.

Trivia time.

Heck of a Morning. MMA Fighting’s Mike Heck discusses if Islam Makhachev put himself in a must-win situation vs. Charles Oliveira at UFC 280.

Excellent.

Class.

Stats.

Get it, Jan.

Indeed.

Colby sighting.

Oh.

Tease.

Congrats!

Leech.

Poor Shaheen.

Back at it.

Lakeside.

Victorious.

RIZIN plus Bellator once again… It’s been far too long. That rumored lightweight tournament has some seriously sick potential.

Thanks for reading and have a great day, everyone!

Last Week’s Results:

Friday: 56% of 871 total votes answered “No” when asked, “Is Gaethje vs. McGregor the fight to make?”

Thursday: 79% of 623 total votes answered “Yes” when asked, “Is Dustin Poirier too high on the UFC’s P4P rankings?” Poirier is currently sitting at No. 8.

Wednesday: 74% of 889 total votes answered “Yes” when asked, “Was it wrong for the UFC to close the Apex to fans and media at UFC Vegas 61?”

Tuesday: 48% of 571 total votes answered “Beneil Dariush” when asked, “Who will get a title shot next first?”

Monday: 44% of 503 total votes answered “Yan Xiaonan” when asked, “How did you score Yan vs. Mackenzie Dern?” Yan defeated Dern via majority decision in the main event of UFC Vegas 61.

Today’s exit poll:

If you find something you’d like to see in the Morning Report, hit up @DrakeRiggs_ on Twitter and let him know about it. Also follow MMAFighting on Instagram and like us on Facebook.