Dana White Says ‘Suga’ Sean O’Malley Can Be UFC’s Next Superstar, Like Conor

“Suga” Sean O’Malley is currently a UFC star, however Dana White states he might reach Conor McGregor-like levels of popularity … as long as he keeps winning in the Octagon!

TMZ Sports talked with the UFC honcho simply days prior to he headed back to Fight Island in Abu Dhabi … where UFC 280 is decreasing Saturday afternoon (in the USA). O’Malley isn’t shy about his desire to be an international star, so we asked Dana if Suga had what it took.

“100% and it’s all about winning those key fights. He needs to win this fight this weekend against Petr Yan. He beats Petr Yan, watch what happens on Sunday,” Dana stated.

“It will be crazy, but yeah, Conor, on his way up, won all of the key fights he needed to win. It’s not for a title or anything but Petr Yan is the number-one-ranked guy in the world.”

Dana states, keeping with the McGregor style, a win vs. Petr would be comparable to Conor’s epic KO of Jose Aldo in 2015.

O’Malley is 15-1, with his sole loss coming versus Chito Vera in August 2020 (depending upon who you ask, the loss was questionable). He’s the #11 ranked bantamweight.

As for Yan, he’s the #1 ranked 135-pounder … and while he’s coming off a loss to Aljamain Sterling, it was an extremely close battle.

Speaking of the champ, Aljo is likewise on the stacked 280 card. Sterling is combating #2 ranked T.J. Dillashaw.

The people aren’t precisely pals. In reality, we talked to Aljamain previously this month, and he called T.J. “Pill.J DillaRoid.”

We asked Dana if he felt great Dillashaw wasn’t taking any prohibited compounds.

“T.J. is absolutely positively clean. These guys are all being tested by USADA and when you’re coming off what T.J. is coming off of, I’m sure he’s getting hard by USADA.”

Of course, Dillashaw was popped for a banned substance, EPO, in early 2019. He received a 2-year ban from the sport.

There’s more. We likewise talked with White about the centerpiece, Charles Oliveira vs. Islam Makhachev.

There’s a dream situation among lots of fans. Oliveira beats Makhachev, and after that Khabib Nurmagomedov comes out of retirement to avenge his sibling’s loss.

Possible?! We asked Dana.

“That’s hilarious. I love it. Believe me, that would be everybody’s dream scenario, including mine if he beats Islam,” White stated.

Dana likewise offered some care to individuals who believe Islam’s going to roll right through Charles.

“[Oliveira’s] one of the guys that’s sort of slips under the radar and people don’t realize it. He’s on an 11-fight win streak. He’s got the record for the most finishes in UFC history, he’s got the most submissions in UFC history, tied for overall UFC post-fight bonuses. He has most Performance Of The Night awards in UFC history, most submissions in both UFC lightweight and featherweight history!”

“I mean the guy has records on top of records on top of records! It’s incredible.”

We likewise talked to Makhachev previously in the week … and discussed all things Charles Oliveira, backup fighter Alex Volkanovski, and UFC 280.