Aiemann Zahabi will show “what a special talent” he is in Sean O’Malley UFC Freedom 250 bout, per Tristar-based UFC peer

Aiemann Zahabi is preparing to fight a former UFC champion at UFC Freedom 250 and one of the former’s peers at Tristar has given his thoughts on that matchup.

Zahabi has been on a massive run in the UFC. The Canadian combatant is now fighting on that White House card against Sean O’Malley in June. When asked how he sees the Zahabi vs. O’Malley bout playing out, Mandel Nallo said [via MMA Canada],

“Yeah, I think people are underestimating Aiemann [Zahabi], which is crazy to me, but I get it. I think that a lot of the fan base are relatively casual when it comes to how they watch fighting. They don’t really understand the length of Aiemann’s career and the skill he’s acquired and the team he’s on. So all they see is tough fights against ‘Chito’ [Vera] and [Jose] Aldo and that’s like; it’s just a recency thing.”

“Where they go like ‘oh yeah, he got into these tough fights.’ Meanwhile, Sean O’Malley has beat Chito clean. But they’re not understanding how good Aiemann is. So, my opinion, it’s going to be cool because it’s on such a big stage that this is going to be finally the moment where people are like, ‘Oh my goodness, Aiemann’s Zahabi. What a special talent.’ I think that that’s a really cool thing.”

Aiemann Zahabi is someone “every Canadian should get on board with”, per Nallo

As Mandel Nallo espoused these thoughts before his long awaited UFC debut that transpired against Jai Herbert at the UFC Winnipeg card, it’s clear that many from the Canadian powerhouse MMA gym have a lot of big things on the go. With some discourse about trying to get Drake to walk Zahabi out for this O’Malley fight to get that superstar cache and to get into the zeitgeist a bit more, Nallo stated [via MMA Canada],

“I mean, I think this White House card is, as a competitor, it’s one of the coolest things you could do. Like, politics aside, optics aside, we’re fighters. Doing unique things is kind of part and parcel of the job. Obviously, fighting in the UFC is a unique thing.”

“Not many guys do it, but this will never happen again. Aiemann and 11 other guys are the only people that will ever do this. I think that’s extremely cool and every Canadian should get on board with Aiemann competing on that show. It’s very special and he’s just the guy to do it.”