Sean O’Malley is “jealous” of Cody Garbrandt.
That may explain why “Suga” is infatuated with his fellow bantamweight veteran. Both O’Malley and Garbrandt held the 135-pound titles in their respective UFC careers — and both lost them convincingly against bitter rivals.
O’Malley to Merab Dvalishvili and Garbrandt to TJ Dillashaw.
“I would love to f*ck him up,” Garbrandt told MMA Fighting. “He just always talks sh*t. I think he has an infatuation with me. He’s so jealous of me and I can’t believe he became a world champion. He can’t wrestle for a lick, can’t defend a takedown. I mean, Merab straight bullied him. But he’s been calling me out forever, so I’ve been ready to fight that dude. I’ve got what it takes, I know how to beat this dude.”
Garbrandt and O’Malley were ready to throw hands all the way back in 2021.
“The way that I fight, it’ll be a bad night for him,” Garbrandt continued. “But that’s up to the UFC. I’ve tagged [UFC CEO Dana White], I tagged him in it. If that’s the next fight [matchmakers] want to do, I think that’s going to be a great pay-per-view fight, good drawing. He’s got a good fanbase, but they’re younger, you know, the Twitch people, the video games, but I’m a dog. I would love that fight.”
It would appear the feeling is not mutual.
Garbrandt, 34, is coming off back-to-back defeats to Deiveson Figueiredo and Raoni Barcelos and is no longer ranked in the 135-pound weight class. As for O’Malley, 30, he’s looking to rebound from a pair of title losses to Dvalishvili but remains ranked at No. 1 in his division.
“No Love” vs. “Suga” … who wants it?
