UFC 299 is just around the corner, and Sean O’Malley is set to defend his title against Marlon Vera. The 27-year-old had his last victory at UFC 292 against Aljamain Sterling. ‘ Suga’ dominated the fight and ended it via knockout in the second round. However, he will face one of his biggest challenges in Vera at UFC 299.

Before the main event, the current bantamweight champion recently appeared on the TMZ Sports show. During the show, O’Malley pointed out how he was focused on his next fight and not on Ilia Topuria. Let us find out what the champion had to say.

Sean O’Malley is all dialed in to face Marlon Vera next

The current bantamweight champion and the current featherweight champion have no love lost between them. Both ‘ Suga’ and ‘El Matador’ have shown their interest in taking on each other multiple times on social media. Topuria, after claiming the featherweight title, has been vocal about facing O’Malley and also took to his X (formerly Twitter) account and wrote, “Me vs Suga. Who wants to see it?”. However, it seems O’Malley is unfazed by the Spaniards’ claims on social media. He recently made an appearance on TMZ Sports and made it clear that he is not worried about Topuria.

The 29-year-old said, “I’ve said what I needed to say about Ilia, Merab, boxing. I’ve said all those things that I needed to say. None of that matters, you know, if I don’t go out there and put Chitos lights out. So dialed in, focused, UFC 299, March 9, that’s what I’m thinking about.”

It’s no surprise that Sean O’Malley has his focus on Marlon Vera currently as the pair has a history between them. ‘ Chito’ is the only fighter to hand ‘ Suga’ his first defeat in his UFC career. Now the current bantamweight champion will look to avenge his loss at UFC 299 and also defend his title. He took out time to explain as to how honored he was to feature at UFC 299.

Suga explains the importance of UFC 299

Sean O’Malley is one of the biggest superstars in the UFC at the moment. After his dominating performance at UFC 292,’ Suga’ has gathered a lot of fans following lately. However, his fans were surprised when he decided to appear at UFC 299 rather than the historic UFC 300. He recently appeared for an interview on YouTube with Kevin Iole and shared why he was happy to make an appearance at UFC 299.

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The 29-year-old said, “Oh, I think if you look at how big the Miami cards always are. Alex Petta, Izzy rematch, Izzy knocked Alex out in Miami; they always go hard in Miami. They always have massive events in Miami. I actually feel honored to headline UFC 299.” 

UFC 299 is one of the biggest events of the year and O’Malley will look to settle the scores with ‘Chito’. The pair met at UFC 252 previously and ‘Suga’ faced his first defeat of his UFC career via knockout in the first round. However, O’Malley has now gone on to become the bantamweight champion and is sitting on top. The 29-year-old is confident of knocking ‘Chito’ out this time around and will look to defend his title.

With the bantamweight title on the line, who do you think will win the fight? Let us know in the comments below.

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