Sean O'Malley no longer is interested in fighting Cody Garbrandt.
Following his knockout loss to Kai Kara-France in his flyweight debut at UFC 269, Garbrandt (12-5 MMA, 7-5 UFC) teased a potential move back up to bantamweight and called out O’Malley.
But with Garbrandt 1-5 in his past six fights, the now top 15-ranked UFC bantamweight O’Malley (15-1 MMA, 7-1 UFC) doesn’t see too much to gain from beating the former 135-pound champion.
“Dude, Cody’s not getting that fight,” O’Malley said on his YouTube channel. “When he said it, you could see in his voice. He’s like, ‘Oh, I want.’ But that fight’s not happening. … It doesn’t make sense for him to say that. You wonder if that’s CTE (chronic traumatic encephalopathy). He’s been knocked out five times in the last two years. That fight’s not happening – at least not next. … It just doesn’t make sense, dude. It literally just doesn’t make sense.
“I go out there and knock out Cody, it’s like he’s 1-8. I lose to Cody, I lose to someone who’s looked at as kind of who sucks now.”
O’Malley, who scored a first-round TKO of Garbrandt’s teammate Raulian Paiva on the same night, continued to reignite the flame with Garbrandt when he faced off with him at the UFC 269 pre-fight press conference. But with Garbrandt’s recent struggles, O’Malley won’t entertain that fight – at least not right now.
