Sean O’Malley, UFC 324 media day Credit: Gabriel Gonzalez/Cageside Press
Payton Talbott called his shot after UFC 332, and unfortunately for Sean O’Malley, the internet immediately grabbed it and ran.
‘Suga’ says he never ducked Talbott, was never offered the fight in the first place, and while he’s been impressed with the rising bantamweight for years, he’s also not exactly jumping out of his chair to fight a tall, lanky killer when names like UFC champion Petr Yan are sitting right there.
“We’ll address the ducking allegations first of all. 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,” O’Malley said on The SuGuru Show.
“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.”
O’Malley clearly likes what he sees from Talbott, but liking someone’s style and volunteering to fight the dude are two completely different things. Especially when O’Malley looks at the matchup and basically wonders why the hell he should fight a tall, dangerous striker when there are bigger names on the table.
“Why would I fight this f*cking tall, lanky, good striker, when I can fight Petr Yan? 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,” he said.
“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.”
The callout after his latest win certainly got the former bantamweight champion’s attention. O’Malley revealed that Talbott has actually been on his radar since before the rising contender even officially joined the UFC.
“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,” said O’Malley.
“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.”