“Chill for few weeks” - Sean O’Malley reveals his plans for Octagon return after a second defeat in his year-long rivalry against Merab Dvalishvili

UFC 316 marked Sean O’Malley’s second consecutive loss to Merab Dvalishvili in a title bout. The former bantamweight champion failed to reclaim the title, allowing Merab to retain his. With O’Malley just coming out of the Octagon recently, the fighter does not seem to be willing to fight his next opponent immediately and instead wants to take a break, although it won’t be a long hiatus.

Sean O’Malley praises the top 10 of bantamweight division, expresses his lack of interest in an immediate fight

With a pro-MMA record of 18-3-0, two out of Sean O’Malley’s three defeats came from Merab Dvalishvili and the other one, which was quite early in his UFC career, came against Marlon Vera. The fighter secured his bantamweight title against Aljamain Sterling and defended it against Marlon, redeeming the first loss of his career as well. In the recent episode of TimboSugarShow, Sean seems quite reluctant to an immediate comeback within the Octagon.

While it might take some time before the fighter gets his next title shot, owing to the consecutive defeats faced, Sean might be interested in taking on Umar Nurmagomedov next before securing another title shot.The fighter revealed his opinion of the potential next bout, “December seems like it would make sense for me to get back in there.” While the host believed that Umar Nurmagomedov would be the perfect match for Sean’s next, the fighter replied, “Umar Nurmagomedov is so skilled, everyone in the Top 5, Top 10 is so skilled.”

While the name of his opponent was not a direct answer, the fighter’s willingness to rest for a while was quite direct, “It’s nice to not think about a fight right now, because I do wanna chill for few weeks and it’s way better that way. Even if the UFC said, ‘Hey I think we know what we are going to do.’ Like I don’t even want to know right now. Just let me chill for five.”Also read: “He went back on his word” - Ariel Helwani on Dana White’s statement indicating a silent exit by Jon Jones from heavyweight title unification boutSean’s decision to stay away from the Octagon might just last for a few months and not more than that. While there are additional speculations of the fighter moving up to the featherweight division, another fighter who is eyeing at a rematch against Sean is Aljamain Sterling at the 145 division.