Tim Elliott, Ricky Simon Among Those Vying for Sean O’Malley Fight
UFC bantamweight Sean O’Malley is searching for a new opponent for the upcoming UFC 264 card after his original opponent Louis Smolka had to pull out due to an injury. After the news broke; flyweight contender Tim Elliott and fellow bantamweight Ricky Simon were among those who threw their names in the hat for a fight with the rising star.
ESPN’s Ariel Helwani was the first to break the news that Smolka had to pull out of the upcoming July main card fight with O’Malley. Specifics on the injury weren’t revealed, but it was apparently severe enough that Smolka had to withdraw from the fight with just weeks to go from fight night.
UFC flyweight contender Tim Elliott was among the first to express his interest to fight on short notice against O’Malley on social media.
“I’ll take that! My opponent was injured!” Elliott tweeted.
Elliott was originally slated to fight Su Mudaerji at UFC Vegas 30 this past weekend before the fight was called off at the last minute. He is coming off of back-to-back wins over Ryan Benoit and Jordan Espinosa and is back in the thick of things in the flyweight title conversation.
Elliott wasn’t the only one who seemed ecstatic about a potential O’Malley fight, as Simon called for a matchup against his UFC bantamweight colleague.
“Less than 2 weeks? I accept,” Simon posted in a tweet.
Simon has won three straight including his recent featherweight debut win over Brian Kelleher at UFC 258. Before that, he had recorded back-to-back wins over tough bantamweight opponents Ray Borg and Gaetano Pirrello. Other names who called for a fight on social media with O’Malley include Merab Dvalishvili and Cody Stamann.
It’s a bit of a good news/bad news situation when it comes to O’Malley and the upcoming UFC 264 pay-per-view. The bad news is he’s currently without a fight, but the good news is there are a plethora of fighters willing to step in on weeks’ notice and fight one of the rising stars in the UFC.
Who do you think should get the Sean O’Malley fight on short notice?
