Former two-division champion Conor McGregor has not competed in more than three years and as of this writing, has no immediate plans to make his Octagon return. That may explain why “Notorious” is taking a back seat to reigning bantamweight champion Sean O’Malley, who had no idea how much money he was going to make as 135-pound titleholder.
“O’Malley is the biggest star in our sport right now,” retired middleweight and current UFC analyst Chael Sonnen said on his YouTube channel (transcribed by MMA Fighting). “And ‘Red Panty Night’ is still real. Conor’s not in the sport, he’s not even licensed. Conor could not walk in and fight tonight if he wanted to. I’m just sharing with you, who’s in the sport, it’s one of those things. Conor has no more of a claim to this sport right now than [Georges] St-Pierre or Khabib [Nurmagomedov]. In fact, St-Pierre and Khabib have attended more UFCs in the last year than Conor.”
McGregor was scheduled to return from his lengthy hiatus, extended by way of broken leg (and broken relationships), atop the UFC 303 pay-per-view (PPV) card last June. Unfortunately, another injury prevented his “Notorious” comeback and his current timeline appears to be 2025 … or never, depending on who you ask.
“I feel that O’Malley, as the biggest star, who’s the hardest working guy outside of the cage that division has ever seen, Top 5 in the sports history — he might be No. 1 — he is a Top 5 in history of the hardest working guys outside of the cage,” Sonnen continued. “For him to have landed this rocket ship in this position and whoever gets in the passenger seat and now you’re telling me [the oddsmakers] believe that he’s two-and-a-half times more likely to lose than he is to win and even if he wins he draws into a guy with a similar disastrous style? That is a lot for a young man to take on, but that seems to be exactly where O’Malley does his best work. That seems to be, when that house is on fire, and he’s right on the edge and people aren’t believing him and he’s got to stay sharp and if he’s not sharp he’s going to fall into a bed of needles, that seems to be where Sean O’Malley performs his finest.”
Poontang is the biggest MMA star.
Right after Jon jones
I don’t think either of his title defenses drew over 1,000,000 PPV buys… although numbers aren’t disclosed and they didn’t give him great undercards.
If Chael says it, then it must not be true…
Love him or hate him Sean is out there promoting himself and the UFC on all platforms. His Reels and TTs are fucking hilarious and he seems to be changing how people who once hated him view him. He works hard, puts in the time, and hasn’t let the fame and fortune go to his head. He’s not out there starting fights in bars, but won’t let another combat athlete get away with talking shit. He takes his job and role as champion seriously, and doesn’t seem to want to squander his accomplishments by being a moron. Here’s the thing too, as good of a striker as he is, he and Tim have been saying for as long as I can remember that his grappling is better than his stand up. And he’s a fuckin’ sniper.
Biggest Fag maybe.
Doubt a 135lb pink hair manlet is far from the biggest star. Chama is pretty much the biggest star right now!
Sean is great. I’m happy to see him find big success. He seems like a genuinely good dude.
Chael is still on the payroll so of course he gonna try to hype up the main event for a $20M event that aint selling well.
they had to reduce prices by 2/3 almost
What’s O’Malley’s PPV numbers?
Based on what exactly?
Tales from Chael’s ass
I love the sport, though admittedly I don’t follow it nearly as closely as I once did.
And I get that some guys are better at self promoting their brand than others. But to me this is just another instance of Dana/UFC protecting guys and propping them up to try and help push them up, much like we saw with Dan Hardy and the early days of Connor for example.
I will sign up to that shithole forum where the admin is peeping on everybody here if O’Malley gets through Merab and Umar, that’s how sure I am he won’t.
O’Malley is currently the biggest star in the UFC?
Welp, once Creed was the biggest rock band in the US
