UFC manager claims Sean O'Malley's next fight will be for the title, but not against new champion Merab Dvalishvili

Sean O'Malley reveals he suffered a hip injury after UFC 306 that requires surgery

In his podcast following his unanimous decision loss at UFC 306, Sean O'Malley confirmed that he will “probably not fight for nine, ten months, maybe a year.”

“It's going to take a while, people are going to have to watch the UFC without the Suga show for a while,” the popular bantamweight explained, before revealing to streamer Adin Ross that the time off was due to the fact that he would soon have to go under the knife.

“I'm having surgery on October 3rd – I tore the left labrum in my hip. That's the only reason I'm out for so long. After the surgery, I should only have two months to recover, then a couple of months to recover. A year is a long time, it could be six to eight months. You never know.”

Ali Abdelaziz claims Sean O'Malley's next fight will be for the UFC title

While the UFC will likely pit Merab Dvalishvili against 18-0 Umar Nurmagomedov for the bantamweight title next, Sean O'Malley will apparently be fighting for the shiny gold belt after his recovery from surgery.

At least that is the opinion of experienced manager Ali Abdelaziz, Umar Nurmagomedov's agent, who told Brett Okamoto via ESPN MMA that he would offer “Suga” the next title fight as soon as the undefeated Russian wins the belt.

“I want Sean O'Malley to do that. He takes as much time as he wants and I believe Umar will beat Merab and after that Umar will give him a title shot after a loss.

“I think Sean O'Malley is one of the biggest stars in this sport. This business is about making money and I think Sean O'Malley deserves a title shot after a loss – you know why? Because Sean O'Malley makes everyone in the division money, Merab and Umar don't yet.”

Abdelaziz believes it won't be long before the 18-0 Nurmagomedov reaches the same star status as O'Malley, but he noted that it would help if the undefeated Dagestani did a little more trash talking.

“Umar has two billion people behind his back – he's going to be the second Khabib. He doesn't talk much; he needs to talk a little more about others, like Khabib did, but Umar is special.”

Back to the topic at hand, while the club could select either Deiveson Figueiredo or Petr Yan as their next contender, the experienced manager believes Sean O'Malley has done enough to earn his next title shot.

“Umar will fight anyone, it could be Petr Yan or Figueiredo, but this is about making money and Sean O'Malley – nobody gave a damn about the bantamweight division before. [him]”, Abdelaziz admitted.

“You have to give him credit for the fact that I don’t know Sean O’Malley and we are not friends, but [he is] the guy who caused a lot of excitement in the division; how can you not give him a title shot after a loss?

“This is about hype, about business and about making money. Listen, Merab versus Figueiredo; nobody cares, Merab versus Petr Yan; nobody cares. And now Umar and Merab; people care, Umar and Sean O'Malley; people care.”

If Umar Nurmagomedov wrests the UFC bantamweight title from Merab Dvalishvili, Nurmagomedov's team can be expected to do everything in its power to get a ticket to the “Suga Show”.

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