Book it. If the UFC hands Song Yadong the next crack at Petr Yan, then Sean O’Malley vs. Payton Talbott is the best fight left on the bantamweight menu, and it should not sit in the fridge for another year while everybody waits to see who blinks.
O’Malley basically said the same thing himself. On The Ariel Helwani Show, the former bantamweight champion admitted the Talbott fight had come close to happening already, and that the only thing that blew it up was the result in Abu Dhabi last Saturday.
“That fight was almost a reality. If Merab won, that was kind of what made the most sense,” O’Malley said, per a clip Helwani posted on X.
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Merab did not win. Yan beat Dvalishvili at UFC 333 to take their trilogy and defend the belt he reclaimed at UFC 323 last year. That flipped the whole division over like a card table at a family Thanksgiving. Now O’Malley, who narrowly beat Yan earlier in their UFC careers, is the obvious name for a rematch. BJPenn.com framed Yan vs. O’Malley 2 as the fight that makes the most sense for both men, and that’s fair. But the same outlet floated the other door too. If Song gets the nod, O’Malley and Talbott could meet with the next title shot on the line.
I’m rooting for door number two, and O’Malley sounds like he wouldn’t mind it either.
The Respect Is the Story
What jumped out at me from the Helwani interview was the tone. Usually when a hungry young contender spends years calling out a star, the star treats him like a guy yelling at a Lambo from the sidewalk. Talbott has called out O’Malley repeatedly during their UFC runs, most recently after a wild finish at UFC 332. O’Malley could have brushed him off. Instead he gave him the kind of review fighters normally save for themselves.
“I remember watching him and being like, this motherf***er is good. He’s very, very skilled. I’ve watched every fight. I enjoy watching him,” O’Malley said. Then the line that made the headlines: “I definitely feel like it’s inevitable that we’ll fight.”
He went further and actually defended Talbott’s résumé against the online critics. The knock on Talbott, as O’Malley laid it out, is that his two biggest wins came against guys who moved up from 125 to 135 and who are both over 35. O’Malley conceded the point. Then he shut it down.
“But you can’t take away that they’re both former world champions, very, very skilled guys,” he said.
Think about how rare that is. The man being chased is the one building up the chaser. That’s a fighter who watches tape, sees a style that interests him, and wants the fight because it’s a good fight. I love that. I can’t stand fighters who duck, and the quickest tell of a duck is a guy who suddenly decides his challenger needs a few more wins before he’s worthy. O’Malley went the opposite direction on a podcast with millions of ears on it.
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Why Talbott Makes More Sense Than Waiting
Here’s my case for the Talbott fight even beyond the Song scenario. O’Malley’s last outing was a knockout of Aiemann Zahabi at UFC Freedom 250. He’s coming in hot. Sitting around waiting for a title schedule to sort itself out wastes that momentum, and a former champ waiting on a phone call is the most boring version of Sean O’Malley that exists.
The Yan rematch will still be there. Yan just beat Merab for the second time, and the bantamweight GOAT debate is raging (Aljamain Sterling wouldn’t even crown him this week). That fight only gets bigger with time. A win over Talbott would hand O’Malley a fresh, legitimate contender’s scalp to go with the Zahabi knockout, and it would make any eventual Yan rematch feel earned rather than handed out.
And from Talbott’s side, the timing could not be better. He’s surging, he’s been calling his shot for years, and the guy he’s been calling out just told the world he’s good enough. If Talbott wins, every reply on X dismissing his résumé as a couple of wins over aging flyweights dies on the spot. If he loses, he loses to a former champion in a fight that gets him paid and gets his name in front of the biggest audience bantamweight has.
This is the rare matchup with no bad outcome for the promotion. Stylistically, O’Malley himself keeps calling it fun to watch. Commercially, it’s the most famous bantamweight in the sport against a kid who has been begging for this exact fight in public.
The UFC has two good options at 135 right now, which is a nice problem to have. If Song Yadong gets the Yan fight, the matchmakers shouldn’t overthink the other half. Talbott has been asking for years. O’Malley finally answered on Helwani’s show. Send the contracts.
