Sean O’Malley saw Ilia Topuria complaining about a scorecard and went straight for the most painful punchline available.
“How hard did Justin Gaethje hit you?” O’Malley asked, in the line Sportskeeda highlighted from his jab at Topuria over the Petr Yan vs. Merab Dvalishvili scoring at UFC 333. MMA Sucka framed it as O’Malley trolling Topuria after his loss at 333. That’s a rough week to have Suga in your mentions.
Here’s what set it off. Yan took the decision over Dvalishvili in their trilogy fight, and Topuria was watching live and reacting to the result. He did not take it well. “48-47 Yan? Nooo. What are you saying?” Topuria said, according to a clip posted by Championship Rounds. Dvalishvili is a fellow Georgian, so the disbelief made sense. It also handed O’Malley an open lane.
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The Gaethje angle carries extra sting because Topuria was already answering questions about his face. On an Instagram live, he responded to comments about his eyes after the Gaethje fight. “The eyes never lie. Look at the eyes of the best,” he said, per Championship Rounds. So O’Malley took the eye chatter, added a disputed scorecard, and turned it into a concussion joke. That’s mean, sure, but it’s fight-banter mean. He’s poking at a guy who just took a fight, which is about as fair as trash talk gets.
The stakes behind the joke are real. Topuria has been one of the sport’s runaway stories. He’s a former UFC featherweight and lightweight champion, and Wikipedia notes he was the first undefeated fighter to win UFC titles in two divisions. That unbeaten run is over. ACD MMA listed him among the fighters who lost their undefeated records in 2026, alongside Khamzat Chimaev, Lerone Murphy, Movsar Evloev and Gable Steveson. Our rankings have Topuria at 17-1 and No. 3 at lightweight.
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O’Malley sits No. 3 at bantamweight, 20-3, and last fought June 14. Yan beating Dvalishvili happened in his division, so O’Malley has every reason to have opinions about that scorecard and about who gets to talk about it.
Topuria hasn’t backed away from a verbal scrap yet, and O’Malley clearly doesn’t mind starting one across two weight classes. If Topuria fires back, it’ll probably come with another line about the eyes. O’Malley, meanwhile, gets to sit at 135 and watch the Yan win shake up the line ahead of him.
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