The Sean O'Malley vs. Jose Quinonez matchup has a new home.
Originally scheduled to take place at UFC 247 on Feb. 8, MMA Junkie has learned that O’Malley (10-0 MMA, 2-0 UFC) vs. Quinonez (8-3 MMA, 5-2 UFC) will now take place at UFC 248.
UFC 248 takes place March 7 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. The main card airs on pay-per-view following prelims expected for ESPN and early prelims on UFC Fight Pass/ESPN+.
O’Malley will make his highly-anticipated return after being forced to the sidelines for almost two years while dealing with continued issues with the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency and Nevada Athletic Commission due to “pulsing” levels of residual ostarine in his system. He was initially matched up with Quinonez at UFC 229 in October 2018 but was suspended six months by USADA for testing positive for traces of the Selective Androgen Receptor Modulator, which he believes were in a contaminated dietary supplement.
O’Malley then saw his UFC 239 bout vs. Marlon Vera at July 2019’s UFC 239 also scrapped due to testing positive for ostarine a second time, stemming from a pre-fight urine sample that was conducted by USADA.
Now with his fight with Quinonez being pushed to March 8, it will mark just over two years since O’Malley last competed.
Quinonez on the other hand, has won his last five of six bouts, with his lone loss in that stretch coming to Nathaniel Wood this past March.
With the change, the latest UFC 248 lineup now includes:
- Champ Zhang Weili vs. Joanna Jedrzejczyk – for strawweight title
- Jared Cannonier vs. Robert Whittaker
- Danaa Batgerel vs. Guido Cannetti
- Polyana Viana vs. Emily Whitmire
- Li Jingliang vs. Neil Magny
- Beneil Dariush vs. Drakkar Klose
- Sean O’Malley vs. Jose Quinonez
