Joe Rogan has a bantamweight fight he wants to see, and he spent part of a recent podcast episode explaining why he probably won’t get it anytime soon. The fight is Sean O’Malley vs. Payton Talbott. Rogan called it “a gigantic fight, and such a good fight on paper,” then argued that O’Malley is right to hold out for something bigger, Bloody Elbow reported.
The timing makes sense. UFC 333 goes down this weekend in Abu Dhabi, and the co-main event has Petr Yan defending the bantamweight title against Merab Dvalishvili. Every other contender at 135 is lined up behind that result.
Rogan’s praise for Talbott was loud, even by his standards. He pointed to Talbott’s win over Henry Cejudo and said the wrestling in his game took a jump after his fight with Raoni Barcelos. Rogan said that when Talbott took Cejudo down, his reaction was “This is madness.” He called Talbott “very special” and said the kid “loves competing and fighting.”
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Then he talked himself out of booking it. “I understand Sean’s position, though, if I was Sean I would not take that fight right now either,” Rogan said. His reasoning was that a Yan win sets up a rematch with O’Malley, since their first fight was close. “The money is there. That’s the fight you want,” Rogan said, adding that the Talbott fight “would be good for the fans, but that’s not the fight to make right now.”
Where everybody stands
O’Malley, the former bantamweight champion, has spent months calling for another crack at Yan. Their first meeting in 2022 ended in a close and disputed decision, and Yan has kept the door open to running it back. O’Malley is effectively betting on Yan here. If Yan beats Dvalishvili in Abu Dhabi, O’Malley gets the rematch and a title shot in the same fight.
Talbott called out O’Malley earlier this month after his win at UFC 332. O’Malley, 31, has kept his focus on the title, but he has said that if Dvalishvili beats Yan, he’ll fight Talbott next. So the fight Rogan doesn’t expect to see soon is really one Dvalishvili decision away from happening.
All of this is landing at the end of the UFC’s first year under its broadcast deal with Paramount, which helps explain why everyone keeps talking about money out loud.
Sal’s take
Rogan basically ran a full fight-week handicap in one breath. He picked the more interesting fight and then agreed with the more profitable one, and I’d make the same call if it were my career. A champion who already went the distance with you in a close decision is a much better bet than a hungry contender who just put Cejudo on his back and wants your spot. Talbott is the dangerous fight with less upside, and O’Malley knows it. That’s why I’d watch Saturday’s co-main closer than either of them will. A Dvalishvili win hands Rogan the fight he says he won’t get, and it puts O’Malley across from the guy he’s been politely ignoring all month.
