Former UFC bantamweight champion Cody Garbrandt is open to a fight with Sean O’Malley suggesting he wants to “whoop his ass”.

Garbrandt (12-5 MMA) made his flyweight debut earlier this month at UFC 269 when he collided with perennial division contender Kai Kara-France.

Cody Garbrandt had made the decision to test the waters at 125lbs following his unanimous decision loss to Rob Font back in May. That setback was Cody’s fourth in his past five fights at 135lbs, with three of those defeats coming via knockout.

Despite appearing to be in phenomenal shape for his flyweight debut, ‘No Love’ ultimately suffered another knockout loss at the hands of the Kiwi.

It was a devastating setback that left many pundits wondering what, if anything, would come next for the former bantamweight kingpin.

According to Cody Garbrandt, although he felt great at 125lbs, a showdown with rival Sean O’Malley appears to be his next move.

“The camp was great, felt good, the weight cut was amazing,” Garbrandt said on his “Rollin with the Homies” podcast (h/t MMAJunkie). “Rehydration, refuel process was good, I felt great at 125. I just got caught with a good punch in there and I just couldn’t recover. After I got hit with the punch, got back up, kinda felt OK to where I was moving, coming forward, but I still wasn’t like all there and then I took him down, and then we got into a scramble and came back to our feet and it just felt like I was on a slant. I was like damn, I’m still not recovered. He brought the pressure and he brought the combinations and was able to capitalize so hats off to him.”

Cody Garbrandt continued:

“Like I said, I felt great at 125. I think that’s something I have to decide, whether I – 35, 25, I feel great at both. I think if I went to 35, I would do things a little differently. Keep my weight up throughout the camp. There’s a lot of good matchups. Sean O’Malley, I really want to whoop his ass. That’s a fight that’s looming. Hopefully, that could possibly be my next one. I want that fight so I’d like to stay at 35. He might fight me now because I’m not in the rankings at 35 and he’s ranked so that’ll be a good fight. You got to respect his skills, he leveled up a little bit with the Raulian fight, caught him early on, but we know that. The only way he was gonna win was catching him early on and he did that. He did his job, hats off to him. He’s now in the rankings so I have to go back up to 35 and whoop his ass, but we’ll decide, we’ll figure it out.”

Would you like to see a grudge match between Cody Garbrandt and Sean O’Malley booked next? Share your thoughts in the comment section PENN Nation!