Sean O’Malley expects to land pound for pound number one slot with UFC 292 title win: ‘I hop the line’
Slated to headline UFC 292 next month in his premiere championship outing under the banner of the promotion, surging bantamweight contender, Sean O’Malley claims with a victory over current division champion, Aljamain Sterling – he should be catapulted to the number one rank in the official pound-for-pound rankings.
O’Malley, the current number two ranked bantamweight contender, has been sidelined since he co-headlined UFC 280 back in October of last year, landing a close, unanimous decision win over former undisputed champion and common-opponent, Petr Yan.
In the midst of a five-fight undefeated steak, Dana White’s Contender Series product, O’Malley is slated to compete for Octagon spoils for the first time during his UFC tenure – taking on the aforenoted, Sterling in August at the TD Garden in Boston, Massachusetts.
Sean O’Malley believes he should land P4P top spot with UFC 292 title win
And remaining supremely confident of success against the dominant titleholder, Sterling, O’Malley also maintains that if he topples the Uniondale favorite in August, he should receive the number one rank in the official pound-for-pound list.
“What’s Aljo (Aljamain Sterling) ranked pound-for-pound? He’s gotta be up,” Sean O’Malley said on his podcast. “Top five right? He’s gotta be. Volk (Alexander Volkanovski) and Izzy (Israel Adesanya) are definitely up there. Jon Jones. Aljo’s defended the belt. I mean, who else has really been defending the belt that much? Leon (Edwards) defended it once. Jamahal Hill hasn’t had a chance to defend it. Izzy’s obviously up there. Islam (Makhachev) , definitely up there.”
“I feel like you gotta give Aljo above Charles (Oliveira), just considering he’s champ and he’s defended the belt three times,” Sean O’Malley continued. “Number seven best pound-for-pound in the world? I win, I go straight to number one. I hop the line, you know what I do, baby. I win. I’m f*cking number one. You’ve seen that sh*t before. Watch me go from not ranked pound-for-pound – number one.” (H/T MMA Mania)
