"Sugar" Sean O'Malley touts potential Petr Yan UFC rematch as biggest fight in bantamweight history

"Sugar" Sean O'Malley has been quite vocal about his intentions to compete in a championship fight at the earliest.

The American combatant, who's a former UFC bantamweight champion, suggested that he'd like to face reigning UFC bantamweight kingpin Petr Yan again.

O'Malley opined that his rematch against Yan would be the biggest fight in the history of the UFC bantamweight division. 

"Sugar" Sean O'Malley is believed to be on the cusp of another UFC bantamweight title shot, given the current landscape at 135 pounds

Sean O'Malley captured his maiden UFC title when he knocked out Aljamain Sterling to become the new UFC bantamweight kingpin in 2023. In early 2024, O'Malley defended the belt by outpointing archrival Marlon "Chito" Vera to avenge a past TKO defeat to him. 

Nevertheless, O'Malley then dropped his title to Merab Dvalishvili via unanimous decision later in 2024. He received a title rematch against Dvalishvili but was submitted and thereby failed to reclaim the title in 2025. 

Intriguingly, Dvalishvili eventually lost the title in a rematch against Petr Yan via unanimous decision in December of 2025. Their series of fights stands at one each, as "The Machine" previously beat Yan via unanimous decision in 2023. 

Meanwhile, O'Malley returned to the win column by outpointing Song Yadong earlier this year and then stopped Aiemann Zahabi via TKO at UFC Freedom 250 last month.

Presently, many believe Yan is likely to defend his title in a trilogy fight against Dvalishvili next. Also, many feel that a Yan victory would get O'Malley a title shot, as he holds a split decision win over Yan from 2022. 

Sean O'Malley foresees his possible rematch against Petr Yan being the biggest in UFC bantamweight history

During a recent conversation with MMA Fighting's Jose Youngs, Sean O'Malley was asked about his longtime rival Cory Sandhagen's recent rematch against his (O'Malley's) former training partner Mario Bautista.

Sandhagen had submitted him several years back, but he was outpointed by Bautista earlier this month. Speaking of which, the belief is that the oft-discussed potential striking showdown between O'Malley and Sandhagen is off the table for the time being. 

When asked about the same and his former opponent Petr Yan being the current ruler of the bantamweight division, O'Malley stated: 

"Petr's the champ. If I don't get that (fight) next, then I wait. And if Petr wins, beats Merab (Dvalishvili), I, you know -- me versus Petr. You know, how do you not make that fight?" 

On being asked whether he feels his trilogy clash against Yan would be the biggest in bantamweight history, O'Malley said: 

"Absolutely. I mean, I would love to hear someone's argument. I think me versus 'Chito' (Marlon Vera) was the biggest fight. I think it was the biggest fight, as of now, it is. As far as numbers, gate, like, that was the biggest bantamweight fight of history. So I think me and Petr would beat that." 

Watch Sean O'Malley discuss a possible rematch against Petr Yan below (*comments at the 1:38-minute mark of the video):