Sean O’Malley believes he’ll steal the headlines from Canelo Alvarez after their respective Sept. 14 battles.
O’Malley defends his bantamweight title against Merab Dvalishvili in the main event of UFC 306 at Sphere in Las Vegas, while Alvarez faces Edgar Berlanga on his own Mexican Independence Day card just down the road at T-Mobile Arena.
Although there’s a lot of emphasis on the head-to-head between UFC and one of boxing’s big stars, O’Malley sees it as a fun challenge — and plans to let his performance make the waves throughout the following week.
“I say this every fight, and I’ll probably continue to say it, but I’m so f*cking excited for this fight,” O’Malley said on his YouTube channel. “I wasn’t actually excited for the [Aljamain Sterling] fight, I was f*cking stressed about that fight — just because of my rib, my training camp wasn’t the best, it was good for what we had.
“This fight, I feel good as f*ck. I feel like I love this matchup, he’s got a 10-fight win streak, it’s a big fight, at the Sphere, in competition with boxing.
“I don’t know, it adds a little layer of … when it comes to Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, who are they talking about? Are they talking about Canelo? Are they talking about the boxing fight? Or are they talking about the absolute dominating, beautiful, masterful, masterclass performance I put on Merab — and the viral knockout that came with it? Or are they talking about a 36-minute Canelo boxing fight that was kind of fire?”
O’Malley stopped Sterling in the second round at UFC 292 in August 2023 to win the belt, and put on a clinic in his first title defense against the extremely durable Marlon Vera at UFC 299 in March.
After beating former champ Henry Cejudo at UFC 298 in February, Dvalishvili finally gets his shot at UFC gold for the first time in one of UFC’s most heavily promoted event at Sphere — a location UFC CEO Dana White says he’ll only go to just one time.
O’Malley is ready for the opponent and the spotlight.
“That’s what excites me, like the competition of who are they talking about Sunday, Monday, Tuesday,” O’Malley said. “Who stole the headlines? [It’ll be] me.
“Five weeks out, it’s crazy.”