Sean O’Malley stunned by Ilia Topuria’s KO win at UFC 317: “Thank God he didn’t accept my callout”

Sean O’Malley is glad he never got the chance to fight Ilia Topuria.

While O’Malley and Topuria were UFC champions, ‘Suga’ had been calling out the Georgian-Spaniard for a champ-champ fight. It would have been one of the biggest fights in recent memory, but it didn’t come to fruition.

Sean O’Malley ended up losing his belt to Merab Dvalishvili, while Ilia Topuria moved up to lightweight and became the UFC lightweight champion with a KO win over Charles Oliveira on Saturday at UFC 317.

After Topuria got the knockout win, O’Malley, who was doing a watchalong for the card, was stunned by the result and was glad the fight never happened.

“Holy f**k. Islam (Makhachev) vs. Topuria needs to happen. He’s up there with Jon Jones,” O’Malley said. “Knocked out (Alexander Volkanovski) Volk, knocked out Max (Holloway), knocked out Charles. Islam next at 170? Holy f**k. Who would even fight Ilia at 155 next? Holy f**k, man. Thank God he didn’t accept my callout. Ilia needs to fight Islam… After I beat ‘Chito’ (Marlon Vera), I called out Ilia and he got scared and ran to 155. No, I’m just kidding, thank God the UFC didn’t make that fight.”

Sean O’Malley believes Ilia Topuria can be one of the biggest stars in UFC history after his stellar KO win over Charles Oliveira.

Sean O’Malley wants to see Ilia Topuria vs Paddy Pimblett

With Islam Makhachev set to move up to welterweight, O’Malley believes Topuria will likely need another fight before the Makhachev bout could happen.

If Topuria does have another fight, O’Malley believes the Paddy Pimblett fight needs to happen as it’s one of the biggest fights in the UFC.

“Islam’s already fighting JDM, so it’s kind of pointless to even fantasize about that fight until that fight happens,” O’Malley said. “Ilia vs. Paddy is the fight to make. Simple as that. 100 percent, that’s the next fight if it’s not going to be Ilia and Islam.”

As for O’Malley, he’s coming off back-to-back losses to Dvalishvili and doesn’t have his next fight booked.