Sean O’Malley isn’t crossing over into boxing. Yet.
The reigning UFC bantamweight champion recently drew interest from boxing star Ryan Garcia, who said he would “destroy” O’Malley in an MMA rules contest during an appearance on The MMA Hour. Garcia defeated WBC super lightweight champion Devin Haney — the title was not up for grabs due to Garcia missing weight by 3.2 pounds — in a thriller this past Saturday, rocketing his fame to another level.
A crossover bout between O’Malley and Garcia would undoubtedly draw interest, and according to O’Malley, his UFC bosses have signed off on him boxing Garcia if the promotion gets a big enough piece of the pie.
“They told me you can do a boxing fight, 100 percent, if it makes us enough money,” O’Malley said on his TimboSugarShow podcast. “So the option’s there, it just has to be able to make enough money. But Ryan being a f****** freak like that, you need two A-sides to make a f****** Floyd-Conor fight.”
UFC famously allowed its biggest pay-per-view draw, Conor McGregor, to participate in a boxing match with the undefeated Floyd Mayweather in August 2017. It proved to be a prudent choice, as the event became one of the most successful in pay-per-view history, with all parties involved in the promotion of the event profiting greatly.
Those are the kinds of dollar signs O’Malley wants to see. The 29-year-old is coming off of the first defense of his UFC title, a unanimous decision win over rival Marlon Vera, and though he’s one of the most talked-about fighters on the roster, O’Malley still feels he needs to do more work to build his name.
“I’m not there yet,” O’Malley said. “I’ve still got to become bigger. Two more f****** sick performances and then we’re talking about being able to do whatever the f*** we want.”
Sean O’Malley confident he’s 2 more ‘sick’ wins away from Ryan Garcia boxing match, Garcia responds - MMA Fighting
