Sean O'Malley thought it was "really cool" to have now-retired UFC legend Khabib Nurmagomedov complement his fighting skills.
UFC star O'Malley looks to leapfrog the top ranked bantamweight contenders when he fights former champion Petr Yan at the promotion's upcoming pay-per-view event in Abu Dhabi on October 22. O'Malley has been criticised for fighting limited competition since being off of the Contender Series in 2017 as he faces the toughest test of his career in Yan.
Filmmaker Will Harris, who runs the YouTube channel Anatomy of a Fighter, recently appeared on Joe Rogan's podcast and discussed Nurmagomedov's praise of O'Malley. “I feel like Khabib has the best read on fights and fighters, his f**** IQ when it comes to fighters”, he said. "When he was getting inducted [into the UFC Hall Of Fame] they asked him how good was O’Malley? It was me, DC [Daniel Cormier] and Ali [Abdelaziz] backstage and Khabib was like, ‘Sean O’Malley is that guy’ and if Khabib said that then Sean, he really got it. There's something special about him."
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O'Malley listened to the podcast and was happy to hear Nurmagomedov has been impressed by his skills. "That's cool, like I said about the high-level fighters when they talk about me versus Petr. I think high-level fighters see I'm a legit mother***er," O'Malley told Helen Yee. "I'm not just fancy and do all this crazy sh**, I have legitimate skills, so it was really cool, to be honest. I thought hearing something like that from Khabib is, you know, he's one of the [greatest of all time], so that was really cool."
Despite having never challenged for a UFC title, O'Malley is one of the most popular fighters on the roster because of his exciting fight style and charismatic personality. 'Suga' is a considerable underdog heading into his fight with Yan, but he insists he is the better fighter of the two. O'Malley added that his fight with Yan isn't as one-sided as many fans are making it out to be and the "smartest guys" such as Nurmagomedov would be torn to be a pick the winner.
“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,'” O’Malley added. "But if you ask the casuals, it’s like, ‘Oh, Petr is going to smoke him. 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.
