Is Sean O’Malley overhyped? This is a question many fans asked after the UFC Noche PPV. ‘Sugar’ has been praised a lot of times as a PPV attraction. The 29-year-old has performed exponentially in the bantamweight category and was also champion for about a year. However, the Montana native lost his last match against Merab Dvalishvili so even though he does have 18 wins fans are questioning his legacy.

The same question was thrown at Sayat Abdrakhmanov who manages the likes of Petr Yan and Shavkat Rakhmonov among others. He broke down the reason why ‘the PPV dragged O’Malley by the ears.’

Is Sean O’Malley popular with the younger generation?

UFC Noche was a big deal for Dana White and the UFC. It was also the first-ever UFC event that happened inside The Sphere in Las Vegas. The whole event had 6 short films as a tribute to Mexican culture since it was during Mexican Independence Week. According to the boss, it was “a love letter to Mexican people.”  Their efforts paid dividends when it became the highest-grossing event in terms of gate revenue. But there’s more to the picture, concerning O’Malley.

While he was optimistic about the financial success of the event, there were reports that UFC 306 ticket sales were not doing that well. There was an X post by @WrestleTix that said that almost 3000 seats were vacant. Many fans pointed out that the high prices might have been the problem. Others indicated that ‘Sugar’ was a star but not as big as McGregor to sell out the arena. ‘Sugar’ headlined UFC 292 as well so how were those pay-per-views? Former double-champ Henry Cejudo said it did a meagre 350K. However, O’Malley rebutted, stating it reached 570K based on his claimed insider information. Either way, Aljamain Sterling, who fought O’Malley in the Boston PPV, later said it was not worth his while or risk because of underwhelming PPV sales.

Now Rakhmonov’s manager spilled the actual truth of pay-per-views when it related to Sean O’Malley. He said, “I think he is more popular among the younger population so to speak but this is not always translated into the purchase of PPV sales. And the more one gets the feeling that UFC wants to make more out of him by the year’s end and out of him as much as possible. It is a showdown by the sales results.”

Whatever the case may be, it is a fact that according to some of the fans, O’Malley still has to reach the level of Israel Adesanya or Conor McGregor in terms of star power. That being said, Sean O’Malley still has potential for star power. Nevertheless, what does Petr Yan have to say about O ‘Malley? Does he differ from his manager’s point of view?

Petr Yan rejects Sean O’Malley as an opponent

UFC returned to China and #3 ranked bantamweight contender Yan fought in Macau to clinch a win against former two-time flyweight champion Deiveson Figueiredo. However before he got prepared for Dvalishvili, he was asked about his choice between Cory Sandhagen and O’Malley.

‘No Mercy’ shut down the claims of his previous defeat, saying, “I will fight anybody… I already beat both Sean O’Malley and Cory Sandhagen.” ‘Sugar’ had defeated Yan in a 3-round fight at UFC 280 via a controversial split decision and since then Yan has wanted to avenge his loss. On the other hand, Yan defeated Cory Sandhagen decisively at UFC 267 three years ago.

Yan instead wants to fight Dvalishvili and settle the score. The Russian-Chinese fighter and Dvalishvili faced off in March of 2023 with the Georgian winning a dominant decision victory. “Merab, let’s do it again,” Yan said after his recent fight at Macau. “I’m ready to talk about a rematch and I believe it’s going to be a very exciting fight.” Though nothing is confirmed yet, do you think he will rematch ‘The Machine’ next? Share your thoughts in the comments below.