Sean O’Malley eyes being the UFC’s most popular star: “I still feel like I have that potential”

Sean O’Malley is on the comeback trail this weekend, but he sees this next opportunity as a chance to vault himself toward previously unseen heights. The former UFC bantamweight champion will clash with the number five-ranked contender at 135 pounds, Song Yadong, in the amended co-main event of UFC 324. Kayla Harrison vs. Amanda Nunes was initially set for the card’s penultimate fight of the night but after news of Harrison’s injury broke, O’Malley vs. Yadong is now the co-main event for UFC’s kickoff card of 2026.

For some who has captured and defended UFC gold, the idea of what the next goal is can be a bit vague for some, but that is not the case for O’Malley. During the first episode of the embedded series leading into UFC 324, with an excerpt posted to X account @RedCorner_MMA, O’Malley said,

“The Suga Show hasn’t peaked yet. I wanted to be the biggest UFC superstar at one point, and I never really was that. I was always up there, top two, top three; I was never the one. I still feel like I have that potential. That means I have to go out there and beat Song [Yadong]. I still see the path for me to become the Suga that I wanted to become before it was all said and done. So I’m still hungry in that sense.”

Sean O’Malley is also eyeballing a spot on the UFC White House card

Sean O’Malley has grander designs for what his calendar year will look like once the dust settles from his Song Yadong fight on Saturday night. While O’Malley does have a pair of setbacks against Merab Dvalishvili, O’Malley does have a win over the man who claimed the Georgian’s bantamweight belt, Petr Yan.

This seems to fit within some of O’Malley’s broader desires for 2026, and he touched upon this during a pre-fight interview with Paramount. Expounding upon the specifics of what that post-UFC 324 vision looks like to the former UFC champ, O’Malley stated [via MMA Junkie],

“Me versus Petr [Yan] at the White House, I think would be the biggest bantamweight fight in history… I got to go out there and get through Song. And if I don’t, you know, it’s pointless on who’s next.”