Sean O'Malley retained his bantamweight title after a victory over Marlon Vera at UFC 299 - and used his post-fight speech to call on Dana White to make a superfight a reality.
The 29-year-old chalked up his 18th win in 20 MMA bouts last night at UFC 299 in Miami, Florida, in a title fight which went all five rounds against Vera.
However, O'Malley was given a unanimous victory on the scorecards by the three judges at the side of the octagon, with scores of 50-45, 50-45, and 50-44.
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It means O'Malley's impressive UFC record stands with one no contest and only one defeat, which he suffered at the hands of Vera in 2020 at UFC 252.
O'Malley won the UFC Bantamweight Championship at UFC 292 when he defeated Aljamain Sterling for the belt, and the victory over Vera was his first defence of his title.
Whenever a fighter successfully defends their title, one question which inevitably crops up is who they have next on the horizon as a fresh challenger emerges.
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And O'Malley used his post-fight speech in the octagon as he spoke to commentator Joe Rogan to issue a call to UFC president White on the next fighter he wants to take on to defend his title - and also where he wants the fight to take place.
O'Malley expressed his desire to move up a weight class and to take on UFC featherweight champion Ilia Topuria, saying he wants White to fly him out to Spain to make the fight happen.
Though he also is fine with taking on top 135lb contender Merab Dvalishvili, O'Malley is excited by the prospect of taking on Topuria and believes it is a fight fans would be infused by too.
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He said: "Dana, give me a jet to Spain baby! I'm coming for Ilia Topuria, and if he doesn't want it - no f**k it, I want Ilia, baby, give me Ilia.
"He's a scary f*****g dude, Ilia, he excites me, going up a weight class excites me, but honestly I'm here for whatever.
"If you guys want me to knock out Merab, I'll do that too, but Ilia's an exciting fight for the people."
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Topics: UFC, MMA, Sean O'Malley, Dana White
John McDougall