Sean O’Malley has no problem with meeting Payton Talbott in the cage, but he won’t let Talbott control the narrative.
Talbott continued his rise up the bantamweight rankings at UFC 332 this past Saturday with a lopsided knockout win over Deiveson Figueiredo, and used his post-fight interview time to call out O’Malley. This isn’t the first time Talbott has mentioned the possibility of fighting O’Malley, and he has pushed the rumor that the two could have potentially fought at UFC White House this past June.
According to O’Malley, that just isn’t true.
“We’ll address the ducking allegations first of all,” O’Malley said on the The SuGuru Show. “I don’t like bringing family into this, but I swear on my family I did not get offered Payton Talbott at the White House. Here’s the thing, if he can also swear that he did, then there was miscommunication somewhere on the line.
“I feel like he made it up. I don’t think he ever got offered me. I can’t imagine them offering someone a fight without asking ‘Suga,’ the A-Side, they asked this guy. They would ask me. I never got offered Payton Talbott at the White House, so that’s that. He called me out and that sounds good.”
At the moment, O’Malley is fully focused on the result of the upcoming bantamweight championship trilogy bout between Petr Yan and Merab Dvalishvili at UFC 333 on Oct. 24 in Abu Dhabi. O’Malley owns a split decision win over Yan and he believes that if Yan is victorious, it only makes sense for them to rematch.
However, Dvalishvili has twice beaten O’Malley—despite O’Malley often claiming he won the first fight—who knows it’s unlikely the UFC would book them to fight again. So if Dvalishvili is victorious, then O’Malley vs. Talbott could happen sooner than expected.
“If Petr goes out there and loses, let’s squabble, me and Payton, let’s make it happen,” O’Malley said. “If Petr goes out there and wins, I’m ducking [Talbott] for a tougher fight. I’m ducking him for Petr Yan. My last seven fights, I’ve fought four of the greatest bantamweights of all time: Petr, [Aljamain Sterling], Merab, and I beat Merab once, so I beat all three of the greatest bantamweights of all time. I ain’t ducking.”
O’Malley also joked that he doesn’t fit the profile of Talbott’s past two wins, Figueiredo and Cejudo. Both fighters held gold at 125 pounds, with Cejudo also winning a title at 135 pounds, and were considerably smaller and older than the 28-year-old Talbott.
“Why would I fight this f*cking tall, lanky, good striker, when I can fight Petr Yan?” O’Malley said. “Should I go down to ‘25 and then bounce back up? I mean, he’s fighting the guys they’re offering him and they just happen to be under 5’5” and coming up from 125. Tough motherf*ckers. Deiveson Figueiredo, former world champion. Legend. Henry Cejudo, did a pretty good job when he used to fight. These are the guys he’s getting offered, it’s not his fault.
“I remember watching Payton Talbott on the Contender Series and I was like, that motherf*cker was sick and I knew I’d probably fight him someday. I like his style inside the octagon and outside the octagon. He’s got swag.”
Talbott’s growing popularity and willingness to chase a high-profile fight don’t bother O’Malley in the slightest; in fact, he’s grateful for Talbott bringing up his name and giving him some free PR.
“I like this, this is awesome,” O’Malley said. “This is f*cking great. I wasn’t on the fight card, I haven’t been in the media for a while, a guy comes out, calls me out. Every headline: ‘Payton calls out Suga.’ This is good.
“This is what you want in the sport. You want people calling you out, you want your name out there, so this is great. My name’s out there, people want to see it, it’s a fun stylistic fight, I like that. It’s good for me.”
