Cory Sandhagen admits he ‘can’t respect’ Sean O’Malley after taking ‘uninspiring’ White House fight

Former UFC bantamweight title challenger Cory Sandhagen went off on former champion Sean O’Malley’s business-first approach to fighting.

Former UFC bantamweight champion Sean O’Malley will return to the Octagon on the White House lawn at UFC Freedom 250 in June. O’Malley and surging contender Aiemann Zahabi will compete in a potential No. 1 contender fight, with the winner likely to face the planned Merab Dvalishvili vs. Petr Yan trilogy winner.

Fans clamored for O’Malley to fight former title challenger Cory Sandhagen for a bout that’s been on many wishlists in recent years. Despite both fighters being in the title mix for several years, O’Malley and Sandhagen have never squared off inside the Octagon.

As Sandhagen continues to wait for clarity on his next fight, he didn’t hold back on O’Malley after the latest failed attempt to call out the UFC superstar.

Cory Sandhagen doesn’t hold back on Sean O’Malley after latest failed callout

In a recent sitdown with Daniel Cormier, Sandhagen went off on O’Malley for allegedly ducking a fight at UFC Freedom 250.

“It’s the only fight that makes sense for the both of us,” Sandhagen said of O’Malley.

“I hate the way that he answers questions all around in general, and I hate the way he answers questions when he gets asked about me. Sean’s been on record for being like, ‘This is a business to me, I want to take the easiest fight for the most amount of money.’

“As a fan, I don’t think that type of character is interesting or inspiring at all,” Sandhagen continued. “I get to inspire a bunch of people because I know I took the hard road to get here, O’Malley is not like that, as a fan I can’t respect that.” (h/t Bloody Elbow)

Sandhagen is looking to earn another title shot after a decisive loss to Dvalishvili at UFC 320 last year. As for O’Malley, he returned to the win column with a unanimous decision win against Song Yadong at UFC 324 earlier this year.

Do you agree with Cory Sandhagen’s comments about Sean O’Malley? Let us know your thoughts in the comments!