Top-ranked UFC bantamweight contender Mario Bautista said that he is open to fighting his former teammate, UFC superstar Sean O’Malley.
By defeating Cory Sandhagen at UFC 329, Bautista reaffirmed his position as one of the top bantamweights in the UFC right now, a spot that O’Malley has been in for several years now.
With UFC bantamweight champion Petr Yan expected to face former champ Merab Dvalishvili in a trilogy bout his next time out, both Bautista and O’Malley could be in line to fight each other in a potential No. 1 contender fight.
If that’s the case, then Bautista says it won’t be awkward to fight his former training partner at The MMA Lab, before O’Malley went on his own way and started training at Red Hawk Academy.
Mario Bautista Open to Fighting Sean O’Malley
Speaking to MMA Junkie Radio, Bautista said that he would be willing to fight O’Malley with a potential UFC bantamweight title shot on the line.
“I haven’t talked to him, but I think we both have an understanding that if it’s for the No. 1 spot to be next for the title or for the title, what else could we possibly do? So, we just have to be ready for that scenario, I guess,” Bautista said.
Bautista then spoke about his current relationship with O’Malley, whom he said he is cordial with but is also very much open to fighting if the UFC offers him the bout.
“We’re not super close or anything, but coming up, we were both amateurs at The Lab. We were both young guys. There were three of us that were kind of stuck together â Me, Kyler (Phillips), and Sean. Just the young guys on the team that were getting beat up by the guys already in the UFC. So kind of growing up together like that, you get a close bond, and then you rise up the ranks with each other. Kyler, then Sean, and we’re following each other, and that’s when he made his move out of The Lab. I think Sean is a good friend. I think he’s a good guy, and I have nothing against him. It’s just, now that we’re not in the same gym, we don’t interact with each other as much, but I’ll see him from time to time, and it’s always good vibes, nothing weird,” Bautista said.
Mario Bautista vs. Sean O’Malley Makes Sense
Although both Bautista and O’Malley would likely prefer to fight someone else, there really aren’t any options for either of them right now given where they are in the UFC bantamweight title picture.
With Yan and Dvalishvili likely fighting sometime later this year, but without having a date booked, it puts both Bautista and O’Malley in a weird spot where they can’t really sit around and wait for the title fight to get booked, as they could be on the sidelines for a long time if that’s the case.
It just makes a lot of sense that these two fight for a title shot.
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