Chael Sonnen has his thoughts on who the UFC’s main attraction is right now.
And it’s not Conor McGregor.
In August 2023, at a Q&A ahead of the UFC 292 main event featuring Aljamain Sterling defending his bantamweight title against Sean O’Malley, Sonnen praised O’Malley as having the “It Factor” and called him “a star on the rise.” O’Malley went on to defeat Sterling by knockout to become UFC champion and a year later, Sonnen believes that there has officially been a changing of the guard as far as who draws the most eyeballs in MMA.
“O’Malley is the biggest star in our sport right now,” Sonnen said on his YouTube channel. “And ‘Red Panty Night’ is still real. Conor’s not in the sport, he’s not even licensed. Conor could not walk in and fight tonight if he wanted to. I’m just sharing with you, who’s in the sport, it’s one of those things. Conor has no more of a claim to this sport right now than [Georges] St-Pierre or Khabib [Nurmagomedov]. In fact, St-Pierre and Khabib have attended more UFCs in the last year than Conor.”
McGregor has long been the de facto answer as to who is MMA’s most famous fighter and, in all likelihood, the next time he steps into the cage he will be box office gold for the UFC as usual. However, “The Notorious” has not competed since suffering a broken leg at UFC 264 in July 2021, and a postponed bout with rival Michael Chandler remains in limbo.
Sonnen raised topic of O’Malley’s star power in the context of the bantamweight champion having to deal with increased scrutiny and media responsibilities ahead of his upcoming title defense against Merab Dvalishvili at UFC 306 on Sept. 14. He wonders if O’Malley could potentially be thrown off his game by Dvalishvili’s unorthodox approach to fight promotion.
“I say that because when you’re O’Malley and you’re out there working double- and triple-time, you’re making sure that you’re in the main event because of things you’re doing outside the octagon,” Sonnen said. “And whoever gets put in that passenger seat with you, regardless of they’ve done, that’s not why they’re there. They’re there because you’re there. They’re in the main event because you drove to the front of the line and there’s an irritation, and I can’t call it a resentment, but there is an irritation when that person is not upholding their end of the deal, which is every interview I do, you do. I do five interviews at 6 a.m., you do five interviews at 6 a.m.
“It doesn’t work that way, that’s not how this goes, I’m just sharing for you as you start to get irritable, as the stress starts coming in, as the fight starts getting closer, as you start getting those pounds off, and this starts to get more real, and you start to realize the risk that you have and the distractions that came along because of the pressure and the expectations put on you. Oh, by the way, you’re not even favored to win this match. That guy is. ‘That guy is favored to win this match and that guy appears to be a little bit more buckled down and focused because he’s not having some of these other distractions and he’s not having them because he’s not good at doing them, I am, and they’re asking me first, and I keep on saying yes.’ And it’s one of these things that can bother you.”
Though O’Malley initially opened as a slight underdog to Dvalishvili, several sportsbooks now have the matchup closer to a pick ‘em.
What’s surprised Sonnen the most is that O’Malley isn’t being given more respect especially after a lopsided decision win over Marlon Vera at UFC 299, a result that Sonnen calls, “The single best performance of any 135-pounder in history.”
Should O’Malley get past Dvalishvili, he likely faces another dangerous bantamweight contender down the road in the undefeated Umar Nurmagomedov. Sonnen wonders if O’Malley’s run is fated to end soon, though he added that “Suga” has made a habit out of silencing his doubters.
“I feel that O’Malley, as the biggest star, who’s the hardest-working guy outside of the cage that division has ever seen, top 5 in the sports history—he might be No. 1—he is a top 5 in history of the hardest working guys outside of the cage,” Sonnen said. “For him to have landed this rocket ship in this position and whoever gets in the passenger seat and now you’re telling me [the oddsmakers] believe that he’s two-and-a-half times more likely to lose than he is to win and even if he wins he draws into a guy with a similar disastrous style?
“That is a lot for a young man to take on, but that seems to be exactly where O’Malley does his best work. That seems to be, when that house is on fire, and he’s right on the edge and people aren’t believing him and he’s got to stay sharp and if he’s not sharp he’s going to fall into a bed of needles, that seems to be where Sean O’Malley performs his finest.”
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