Sean O'Malley defeats Kris Moutinho via third-round TKO at UFC 264 on Saturday, July 10 [Photo courtesy of @UFCNews Twitter].
Sean O’Malley ‘surprised’ to be the betting underdog against Petr Yan: ‘I believe I’m going to go out there and beat his ass’
Sean O’Malley doesn’t get why people think Petr Yan will smoke him.
O’Malley and Yan are set to meet on the stacked UFC 280 card in Abu Dhabi and the oddsmakers have Yan as a massive favorite. He’s one of the biggest favorites on the card as many believe this is too much of a step-up in competition for O’Malley, but for ‘Suga’ he is extremely confident he will get his hand raised.
“I think if you asked the smartest guys, the best fighters in the world, ‘What do you guys think?’ They’re like, ‘God, I don’t know. It’s a tough one!’ But if you ask the casuals, it’s like, ‘Oh, Petr is going to smoke him. He’s a 3-1 underdog or whatever.’ I’m a little surprised but also I kind of get it from other people’s perspective. But I believe I’m better than Petr Yan, and I believe I’m going to go out there and beat his ass, so I guess I am kind of surprised,” O’Malley said in a recent interview with Helen Yee.
Not only does Sean O’Malley expects to upset Petr Yan but the fan-favorite thinks he will show to the world just how good he is and he is a legit title contender.
“Like I said about the high-level fighters when they talk about me vs. Petr, I think high-level fighters see that I’m a legit motherf****r,” O’Malley said. “I’m not just fancy and do this crazy s***. I have legitimate skills. So it was really cool. Hearing something like that from Khabib, he’s one of the GOATs, so it was really cool.”
O’Malley is coming off a No Contest against Pedro Munhoz back in July and prior to that, he scored a TKO win over Raulian Paiva. He also holds notable wins over Thomas Almeida, Eddie Wineland, and Jose Alberto Quinonez.
