Sean O’Malley is riding high in the 135-pound division as the king. His success and personality have often led fans to wonder if he’ll be the one Conor McGregor passes the torch to. Meanwhile, UFC CEO Dana White has also been praiseful of ‘Suga,’ often acknowledging his sheer star power and audience pull.  And recently, the UFC CEO revealed the one thing that can help etch O’Malley’s name as the next big star after Mystic Mac, who carried the promotion during the 2010s.

UFC 306, besides taking place at the $2.3 billion Sphere, is also Sean O’Malley’s biggest fight to date against Merab Dvalishvili. Before that fight, Dana White announced they’d already recorded the highest-ever gate in the promotion’s history. That enough should make people realize that O’Malley is indeed the real deal, and his boss recently stated that ‘Suga’ has a lot in common with Conor McGregor.

Dana White wants Sean O’Malley to maintain consistency

Similar to Conor McGregor, Sean O’Malley‘s UFC debut was also full of hype. However, he was also subjected to criticism because of that hype, and guess what? This has also been an occurrence in McGregor’s career as well. But the key difference here is that ‘The Notorious’ focused on the goal in his mind and, as we already know, became the first double champion and the most popular athlete that mixed martial arts has ever seen.

“He’s a lot like Conor in a lot of ways that he had a lot of hype coming into the UFC, you know,” Dana White told ‘TMZ’. “Then he [O’Malley] had a lot of hate because he had so much hype. Then you gotta go in and win the key fights. Conor was able to do that. Everybody kept predicting Conor’s going to lose, Conor doesn’t have any wrestling, Conor doesn’t have this and that and look, Conor ended up being a two-weight world champion… the biggest star in the history of the sport.”

Thereafter, the 55-year-old laid the blueprint for the bantamweight champion, Sean O’Malley, to become the next Conor McGregor, and to maintain consistency like the Irishman did back during the peak of his career. Dana White claims it’s all about the “big fights,” since these fights mostly have a lot on the line. “Then you have O’Malley, who’s on the same trajectory. Now it’s all about winning the big fights… he’s already there [but] it’s all about winning the big fights now,” Dana White added.

Ahead of the PPV this weekend, Sean O’Malley chimed in with a few words about the ongoing discussion about him taking over the reins from Conor McGregor. Vocal fans might disagree, but ‘Suga’ claims that he’s inching closer to ‘The Notorious’s level of stardom with every single successful outing.

‘Suga’ claims he’s closing in on McGregor

Bold claims was the name of the game for Sean O’Malley during the recent media day. The champ claimed that he’s quickly becoming a needle-mover in the UFC and could overtake the Irishman in no time. Also, ‘Suga’ claims things are at stake for the former double champion in his fight against Michael Chandler.

If you’re wondering why, well, it’s the obvious fact that he’s been away for a seriously long time, and a loss in the two fights that McGregor claims he has on his UFC contract could diminish the drawing power he currently possesses. “I think I’m close [to catching McGregor]. I think Conor still has one more big fight in him, but the big question mark is if he can come back and beat Michael Chandler… But if he goes out and loses his next fight, that’s like six in a row or something? [His star power] has to die down eventually,” Sean O’Malley told ESPN.

The question here is, what does Conor McGregor think about this? We’ll need to wait for a response from the Irishman, who’s a very vocal individual. What do you think about Dana White’s condition for Sean O’Malley to overtake Conor McGregor in the UFC? Let us know in the comments down below.