It seems Conor McGregor and Sean O’Malley do not like each other. The duo, after all, have been feuding online recently, with ‘Mac’ having dragged the UFC bantamweight champ into a post calling out Ryan Garcia after the latter’s positive drug test, where he had some strong words for ‘Suga’.

Since then, the Irishman has expressed his fondness for O’Malley. But the bantamweight is unconcerned and thinks that ‘Mac’, jealous of his rise and his own career being on a sharp decline, is envious and holds a grudge against him and his rise.

However, things were not always as heated as they have been recently between the two men. ‘Mac’ even wanted ‘Suga’ to his sports management company and have his agent represent the rainbow-haired striking maestro once upon a time.

O’Malley has revealed that when he and ‘Mac’ ran into each other at a football stadium in 2021, the Irishman had asked him to sign with ‘Paradigm Sports’, the company that the Irishman partly owns, and is represented by. In addition, the Audie Attar-led company has UFC stars like Michael Bisping, Stephen ‘Wonderboy’ Thompson, and Leon Edwards.

“He [Conor McGregor] wanted me to sign to his agency. Like he was telling me, he was trying to tell me ‘Hey you can’t just pick your fights. You got to fight anybody and everybody if you want to be the best. You can’t pick your fights,'” O’Malley recounted in an interview with ‘ESPN MMA’.

And since ‘Suga’ wants to be the next McGregor, he would have taken the advice of the man he wants to emulate, right? Well, no.

“And I was like I’m not like just saying yes to the UFC. And then he’s like ‘Oh you got to come sign a with us me and Audie [Attar, CEO of McGregor’s ‘Paradigm sports’], or whatever,” he added. O’Malley revealed that he felt Paradigm and Attar would not be able to represent him as he wanted, and disagreed completely with them on saying yes to any fights offered to him. But for now, O’Malley isn’t thinking much about McGregor or anyone else, really, except for Merab Dvalishvili.

‘Suga’ unbothered by Dvalishvili’s wrestling

Sean O’Malley is all set to face Merab Dvalishvili on the UFC Noche (306) card at the iconic ‘Sphere’ in Las Vegas on September 14. And what an interesting matchup that is shaping up to be. A classic striker vs. wrestler fight, Dvalishvili’s world-class wrestling is expected to be a huge challenge for the champ.

However, O’Malley doesn’t think so. The bantamweight king, in fact, doesn’t see ‘The Machine’ challenging his wrestling at all! Why? Because ‘Suga’ is sure he will knock out Dvalishvili and knock him out quickly before the Georgian challenger has the chance to take him down.

“I don’t think Merab’s going to be the one to test my wrestling, to be honest. I truly believe I’m going to put his lights out very early,” ‘Suga’ said in his signature, ever-self-confident manner. However, it is one thing to say that in an interview and quite another to try and actually do so to ‘The Machine’, who is nothing if not relentless. What are your predictions for their UFC 306 clash?