Media Sean O'Malley sees path to double champ status if Ilia Topuria beats Volkanovski

[TheMMAnalyst]

Illia moved to FW in 2019 after failing to make BW in his ill-fated Cage Warriors BW title shot against Brian Bouland in Belgium in June 2018. He has bulked since then. He used to look like this.



Now no-one is really thinking in going down in weight. I fact, the plan is going to LW later in his career. My orevious comment ins just joshing.

Thanks for sharing the old video of Illia at BW, never had seen that before!

Illia at BW looks so much like Nathan Wood at 135 - completely emaciated, almost no body-fat, sunken cheeks, must be just miserable to live and train like that.

Honestly he needs to have someone in his corner steer him away from even thinking about LW - he hasn't even won the title at FW, let alone defended it a few times, and he's thinking about going up a weight-class? To a division where the one time he was forced to go up in weight he almost got slept by a head-kick in one round by a guy that isn't even top 30 in his division.

I guess everyone sees what Volk did and thinks they can do it to - kudos for the massive balls, but terrible idea IMO. Though I would be OK with a one-time move up in weight to fight Paddy lol.

 

[Kenny Powerth]

Illia would absolutely smoke that fool

 

[Guy LeDouche]

I think O’Malley has a hard time beating the top of his own division, let alone a weightclass up where guys are absolute killers.

 

[Poirierfan]

This seriously pisses me off, blow the fucking UFC up and rebuild the shit from scratch with a new president. These fighters these days are all fucking retarded (rant over). Lol

 

[Gotosleepho]

Call me crazy but I think he could pull it off.

 

[13Seconds]

If Ilia is good enough to beat Volk, he would do some evil shit to Suga Sean

 

[blewgums]

Can we stop all the nonsense and just get back to making fun of Conor?

 

[LincolnHawk1]

I don’t care for either guy personally, but like watching them both fight. Ilia would absolutely obliterate o’malley in a fight. Sean is a good striker but ilia is much bigger and hits much harder and would smash him quickly. I think he would ko him in the first round.

 

[Kryptt]

 

[chs140]

If Topuria can get past the striking and grappling of Volk there's not a damn thing O'Malley can show that should give Topuria issues. Volk is so much more fundamentally sound than O'Malley is and has much more layers to his angles and movement which Topuria will need an answer for.

Josh Emmett would be the highest ranked guy I could see O'Malley styling on but Emmett isn't becoming champ.... maybe Ortega too.

Yeah. Definitely not a big difference between 5'5 volk and 5'11 O'Malley.

I would wager on you not having a striking background.

 

[Killer Kadoogan]

I hope Ilia absolutely destroys the personification of Fortnite

 

[svmr_db]

This seriously pisses me off, blow the fucking UFC up and rebuild the shit from scratch with a new president. These fighters these days are all fucking retarded.

Well O'Malley is just putting it out there as a goal he'd like to eventually tackle, nothing wrong with that. I don't think he ever meant that's what he wants to do next (if he beats Chito). Lots of hypotheticals at play at this point so I wouldn't give much thought to it.

But yeah a little annoying how fast people talk about double champ status, even non champs like Du Plessis lol.

 

[Liverkick-king56]

Yeah. Definitely not a big difference between 5'5 volk and 5'11 O'Malley.

I would wager on you not having a striking background.

Sean O'Malley has a inch longer of reach... Volk also has a deeper arsenal of feints, angles, high IQ jab, is stronger and far more fundamental boxing with a very tight defence. He also has the leg kicking game to punish other high level strikers...... the only edge I'd give Sean is his flashier kicks and pushkicks.

If you can tell me how O'Malley is a better striker I'll willingly debate but questioning my background is odd.

 

[jeff7b9]

I don't think either of these guys should be looking past their next opponents.

 

[mmadeewana]

Can Ilia make MW to fight Conor tho

 

[Poirierfan]

Well O'Malley is just putting it out there as a goal he'd like to eventually tackle, nothing wrong with that. I don't think he ever meant that's what he wants to do next (if he beats Chito). Lots of hypotheticals at play at this point so I wouldn't give much thought to it.

But yeah a little annoying how fast people talk about double champ status, even non champs like Du Plessis lol.

Sean just set me off, I'm talking about in general though. The old days they would move up in weight after numerous legit title defenses. It's just all preposterous to me. Lol, especially when I sleep in late and the first thing I read when I wake up is this. Lol

 

[rjmbrd]

I understand Sean physically looking like a clown yields him a lot of hate.

Personally I think it was super based he's openly said he doesn't think it wise to fight Volk. Aside from Volk being #1 P4P in the world when Sean said this last year, the fact of the matter is styles make fights. Volk is a complete nightmare for Sean.

Sean would be a solidly top 10 featherweight if he stepped into it right. Don't argue with success, his body of work is solid.

The guy showed his inner dog in the Yan fight when everyone called Yan the boogieman. Good luck finding many other BW fighters that will one punch sleep someone talented as Aljo. Sean is one of the most proven young fighters in the world right now. If he outgrows the division, expect him to be moving up and being successful.

 

[Kaiokenrye24]

Topuria makes O’Malley quit inside 2 rds

 

[JustBleed69]

I think O'Malley could beat Ortega but Ortega might be ranked too highly anyway.

He for sure is. No idea why he's ranked at all to be honest, dude hardly ever fights and has gotten his ass handed to him in his most recent bouts.

 

[drbolony]

I was coming here to say Sean is right and that Ilia is super overrated on here. That said, after taking about 10 seconds to think about it, I kind of agree with you guys.

I forget that Ilia has serviceable wrestling and pretty good BJJ. Good enough to control Bryce Mitchell and good enough to become a thoughtless marauder against Ryan Hall, because he had little respect for his ground game and absolutely none for his striking.

In a pure kickboxing match (which this is not) Sean clowns Ilia. MMA makes it interesting and possibly one sided in Ilias favor. Dudes strong ASF.