Sean O’Malley heard the callout, and he wasn’t about to let anybody label him a runner for long.
“4 out of last 7 fights have been against 3 of the greatest bantamweights of all time. Ain’t duckin no one,” O’Malley said in a response shared on X by Championship Rounds.
By Tuesday, MMA Junkie reported that O’Malley actually loves Payton Talbott’s callout. Whether the two fight next is a different matter. O’Malley said that depends on how the matchmaking shakes out.
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The whole thing started Saturday night at UFC 332, where Talbott dismantled Deiveson Figueiredo and then went straight for the biggest name he could find. “Sean O’Malley, you can’t run forever. Give the people what they want,” Talbott said on the mic. That’s trash talk. Calling a guy a runner is an accusation, and nothing in the record backs it up. O’Malley’s resume over his last seven fights is his rebuttal.
The callout landed fast. Spinnin Backfist posted two words on X: “BOOK IT.” Henry Cejudo, a former two-division champ who has never needed an invitation to needle O’Malley, piled on too. Cejudo wrote on X that nobody wants to fight Talbott, that Talbott has been ignored for a year and deserves the best competition, and that the UFC needs to stop protecting O’Malley, whom he tagged with a mocking nickname. He capped it by telling both sides to sign the contract. Cejudo’s claim that the UFC is protecting O’Malley is his opinion and he offered no proof.
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Here’s the math the matchmakers are looking at. O’Malley sits at No. 3 in the Knockout Daily bantamweight rankings at 20-3, and his last fight was June 14. Talbott is No. 15 at 12-1. The Reno Academy of Combat product came through Dana White’s Contender Series in 2023 and opened his UFC run with a submission and two knockouts, including a 19-second finish of Yanis Ghemmouri at UFC 303. His only loss came against Raoni Barcelos at UFC 311 in January 2025, a unanimous decision where Barcelos outwrestled him.
That ranking gap is the whole story. A No. 3 former champ fighting a No. 15 is a fight O’Malley takes because he wants it, and the rankings don’t make him. Talbott is a striker with highlight finishes and a mouth, and O’Malley built his entire brand on being exactly that guy. I’d buy that fight in a heartbeat.
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O’Malley loves the confidence, and he’s leaving it to the matchmakers. Talbott called his shot against Figueiredo on October 3. Now he waits to see if the UFC hands him the one he asked for.
