With most fighters eager to compete during the UFC’s tentative schedule, rising bantamweight prospect [autotag]Sean O’Malley[/autotag] said he’s looking at a summer return.
The UFC continues to work behind the scenes on building an amended event schedule, with the latest targeted date being May 9 at a location yet to be determined.
Throughout the uncertainty, O’Malley (11-0 MMA, 3-0 UFC) said he threw his name in the hat for the previously scheduled UFC 249 card on Saturday, but matchmakers said they’d rather have him compete during “International Fight Week,” by which time they hope restrictions may have eased.
“Yeah I did,” O’Malley told MMA Junkie on asking to fight on UFC 249. “I messaged Sean Shelby, (but) he said they want me to fight in July in Vegas.
“I would love to fight on ‘Fight Island.’ I think that would be awesome. But I think realistically my next fight will probably be in July, and it’s going to be in Vegas. And hopefully everything calms down a little bit. But yeah, (I) definitely want to at least fight in July, whether it’s on an island or in Vegas.”
O’Malley returned to action after a two-year layoff in March and scored a first-round finish of Jose Quinonez. Fighters in the bantamweight division continue to call out his name, but O’Malley isn’t too concerned with whom he fights next.
“It’s nice – I just don’t think about who I’m fighting next or any of that until we have to get a fight booked,” O’Malley said. “Right now, I’m just improving, because if I get a name in my head, I’m like, ‘OK, I’m fighting this guy.’ Now I kind of start thinking about fighting that guy, and then it changes because something happens, so it’s kind of a waste of time. So I’m just improving my skills right now. It doesn’t matter who I’m fighting next. Once we’re a couple of months out from the date, then we’ll probably figure out who we’re fighting.”