Said Nurmagomedov has recently been calling out Sean O’Malley, and Chael Sonnen has decided to weigh in.
The Russian is coming off a massive win at earlier this month at UFC 270. Already considered one of the best prospects at bantamweight going in, he scored an effortless victory over 135lb staple Cody Stamann. Following the win, he quickly decided to try and set up his next fight by calling out Sean O’Malley.
Nurmagomedov has been challenging ‘Sugar’ on Twitter as of late. He’s accused the bantamweight star of ducking a fight against him. According to Chael Sonnen, the Russian prospect has been using “schoolyard tactics” in his callout of O’Malley, by accusing him of being scared.
Sonnen weighed in on the Nurmagomedov trash-talk on his YouTube channel, stating:
“I don’t challenge that fact. I didn’t call Sean and ask him ‘hey were you offered this guy?’. I’m not adding credibility to this, or stating this is the way it happened. But this is what was said, and after I read it, It might have. It doesn’t sound like Sean O’Malley would turn down a fight, but this is what it was designed to do, was to try and embarrass Sean. Which is a real schoolyard tactic.”
Chael Sonnen continued and opined that O’Malley is far from scared from fighting Nurmagomedov. ‘The Bad Guy’ believes that a fight between the two just wouldn’t make sense for ‘Sugar’ to accept due to his rising star power.
Nurmagomedov is far from the first to criticize O’Malley when it comes to his competition. Various fans and contenders have critiqued his past opponents for not being logical fights for ‘Sugar’, given their unranked status.
However, O’Malley’s most recent venture to the cage did see himself earn a bantamweight ranking afterward. ‘Sugar’ knocked out Raulian Paiva in the first round at UFC 269, which led him to be inserted at No.12 in the UFC’s 135lb rankings.