Henry Cejudo wants to go against  Sean O’Malley after the latter’s loss at UFC 306. ‘Suga’ had a massive loss against Merab Dvalishvili via unanimous decision on Saturday. The former two-division champion who already has an ongoing rivalry with O’Malley and has an online feud with him, has grabbed this opportunity to pose himself as the Montana native’s next opponent. He also has a theory that since he is a wrestler just like the Georgian who defeated ‘Sugar’, he might be making O’Malley apprehensive.

On top of this, in a recent discussion with Kamaru Usman, ‘Triple C’ also expressed that there was a particular bias in UFC when it came to Alex Pereira and Sean O’Malley. Maybe this stems from the fact that the Brazilian was booked for UFC 307 and this is the third time he’s coming back this year. Let’s see what Cejudo had to say about the biases in UFC.

Henry Cejudo reprimands the promotion for partiality towards fighters

During a conversation with ‘The Nigerian Nightmare‘ in the new Pound 4-Pound podcast, the duo discussed the iconic fight at UFC 306. While discussing this fight, the former Olympic gold medalist pointed out particular biases that UFC seems to have for ‘Suga’ and ‘Pereira’. His point was O’Malley never went through the harshness or the ‘ringer’ that they had to endure. This concerned ‘Triple C’, because, according to him, when these athletes went against fighters who could mix up their fighting style, that was going to pose a real danger for them. The man who has also lost to Dvalishvili said, “Sean was speeded up to the title shot and even, I’m gonna say it right now, even Alex Pereira like what’s gonna happen when they give Alex Pereira a guy like Ankalaev? A guy that can mix his fight a guy that is vicious on top, a guy that has submission threat. And a guy that has great striking as well.”

‘Suga’ did fight against Peter Yan and succeeded as was pointed out by Usman. He also went against Aljamain Sterling and won but O’Malley never went against the top ten in the ranks according to Cejudo. His point was that this fight at UFC 306, was not exciting, and he did not even know which round was won by ‘Suga’! So, his concern came true when O’Malley faced real dangers like with Dvalushvili. He also mentioned  Pereira’s peril; he could get a really tough opponent like Magomed Ankalaev who can mix up his fighting styles. Meanwhile, Ankalaev has already called out ‘Poatan.’

The no 2 ranked light heavyweight contender is set to fight Aleksandar Rakic at UFC 308 while Pereira will be fighting Khalil Rountree at UFC 307.  The Brazilian had previously claimed that he wanted to face Ankalaev and asked for the matchup but the latter turned it down. However, the Russian denied those claims and labeled ‘Poatan’ as a liar. So, Pereira has Ankalaev on the borders to worry about while O’Malley has Cejudo.

Henry Cejudo exposes Sean O’Malley after the latter’s UFC 306 loss

With O’Malley’s lack of wrestling ability being exposed at UFC 306, ‘Triple C’ suspects that he might not want to fight another striker like Petr Yan or a wrestler like himself. In that case, the former champ would rather move back to flyweight. He said, “I would love to fight him [Sean O’Malley]. I think with all the trolling that we have done to each other, we both live in the same damn city. But I just don’t think that he’s going to want to fight me particularly right after this performance that Merab did to him. I think moving forward if Sean O’Malley is willing and wants to fight this troll, who’s the true king of Arizona, well then here I am. But if not Kush, I’m making my way back down to 125 pounds man because I’m not gonna waste my time.”

The former Olympian had fought ‘The Machine’ and even though he lost the bout, he had managed to KO the latter in the first round at UFC 298. This might be the reason he thinks that he might defeat ‘Suga’ and has called the latter out while also announcing it to Dana White. However, UFC does not force any combatants to take up a fight especially fighters with the stature of O’Malley or Pereira so the decision lies with the former bantamweight champ.

Cejudo retired temporarily in 2020 and came back in 2023 against Aljamain Sterling at UFC 288. However, his form has not been up to the mark since coming back. He lost two fights against Sterling and Dvalishvili in the 135 division, and now, he is hoping to get his foothold in the 125 division. Do you think ‘Suga’ will fight ‘Triple C’ who is amazing at wrestling? Share your take below.