Sean O'Malley Wants To Be 'Paid Fairly', Believes He's Close To UFC Title Shot

Mandatory Credit: Jeff Bottari - Zuffa LLC

Renowned UFC bantamweight striker, 'Suga' Sean O'Malley believes he's likely close to his first title challenge under the promotion's banner, however, has explained how he hopes to be "paid fairly" in the future.

O'Malley, who has won his last two consecutively following an August 2020 knockout defeat to Marlon Vera, is targeting a UFC 269 return in December, having previously rejected the opportunity to feature at UFC 268 in November 5. at Madison Square Garden against former lightweight titleholder, Frankie Edgar.

Scoring a pair of impressive victories in his last two outings since a loss to the aforenoted, Vera, O'Malley finished Muay Thai practitioner, Thomas Almeida with a huge third round ground strike at UFC 259 in March -- before stopping Kris Moutinho with third round strikes at UFC 264 in July, setting multiple striking records to boot.

Despite failing to crack the top-15 ranks at bantamweight with his win over promotional newcomer, Moutinho two months ago, O'Malley remains confident that he's on the brink of a title challenge at 135lbs, but also echoed recent claims that he should be compensated fairly, amid notable high-profile issues with fighter pay in the organization.

"I feel like I'm the main draw at 135lbs, I'm the biggest name at 135," O'Malley told Ariel Helwani on the The MMA Hour. "So there's a lot of sweet, sweet, interesting fights at 135 that I would love to be a part of. Obviously I want to get paid fairly, but yeah, I think I'm not too far off from fighting for the title, main-eventing pay-per-views. ... It depends. I really want to fight these three fights out and then start talking big names. I don't think I should be main eventing for the money I'm making right now. I think I should be getting paid more, so we'll see." (H/T BJPENN.com)

O'Malley recently hit the headlines after explaining how it would make little sense for him to fight the likes of the #1 ranked Petr Yan if offered the opportunity, given the fact he would receive the same payment from the promotion for fighting competition outside of the top-15 of the bantamweight division.