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UFC: Sean O’Malley Proposes Massive Bet to Rising Contender Ilia Topuria

UFC bantamweight champion Sean O’Malley offered a rising star potential life-changing money ahead of their respective fights.

Zain Bando

UFC: Sean O’Malley Proposes Massive Bet to Rising Contender Ilia Topuria
UFC: Sean O’Malley Proposes Massive Bet to Rising Contender Ilia Topuria /

Sean O’Malley is attempting to make it rain.

Ahead of his bantamweight title fight with Marlon Vera at UFC 299, O’Malley traded social media jabs with Ilia Topuria Thursday night.

After O’Malley initially called out Topuria on ‘X,’ Topuria fired back by claiming O’Malley, who has 3.9 million Instagram followers, can’t sell pay-per-views.

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“I offered to fight you, but the UFC told me that you are only good for fighting in teenagers' places, because that’s your only fanbase,” Topuria wrote. “Our fight will never happen. After fighting Volk, I will fight Conor. And you will come as a fan boy. After seeing your PPV numbers, the only thing I can offer you is that you fight in the preliminaries of my card.”

O'Malley was quick to respond.

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"Couple things here," O'Malley wrote. "1st. Teenagers places? No understando 2nd. Let’s make a bet on PPV numbers. 100k cash whoever’s PPV is bigger. If you don’t have 100k that’s fine you can do 4 payments of 25k. 3rd. Conor doesn’t know who you are"

Topuria didn't accept nor decline the bet, dismissing O'Malley as irrelevant to his future career goals and aspirations.

"I can’t care less about you kid," Topuria responded. "Now the PPV king needs to sleep! Stay safe and save ur money… GN!

Both men will compete on back-to-back pay-per-views during the UFC's early Q1 schedule, as Topuria will attempt to capture featherweight gold opposite Alexander Volkanovski next month.

O'Malley won the bantamweight title in August, dispatching Aljamain Sterling by TKO in the main event of UFC 292.

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Zain Bando
ZAIN BANDO

Zain Bando is a writer for MMA Knockout, part of the Sports Illustrated/Minute Media umbrella. He has covered combat sports since 2019 for notable outlets BJPenn.com and FanSided MMA. He also co-hosts a podcast called "The MMA Outsiders," part of the Empty The Bench Podcast Network, which airs Tuesday nights at 7:00 p.m. ET/4:00 p.m. PT. A Chicago suburban native, Bando has been enthralled with MMA since 2006 and has been fortunate to attend some of the most high-profile events in the sport's history, both as a fan and media member, including UFC 264, Bellator 297 and Kayla Harrison's PFL MMA debut. He is excited to take the next step in his combat sports writing journey and looks forward to continuing his following of the fight game for years to come. Bando can be reached via email at zainbando99@gmail.com or by social media @zainbando99

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