Sean O’Malley confident he’s 2 wins away from Ryan Garcia boxing match, Garcia responds

Sean O’Malley isn’t crossing over into boxing. Yet.

The reigning UFC bantamweight champion recently drew interest from boxing star Ryan Garcia, who said he would “destroy” O’Malley in an MMA rules contest during an appearance on The MMA Hour. Garcia defeated WBC super lightweight champion Devin Haney — the title was not up for grabs due to Garcia missing weight by 3.2 pounds — in a thriller this past Saturday, rocketing his fame to another level.

A crossover bout between O’Malley and Garcia would undoubtedly draw interest, and according to O’Malley, his UFC bosses have signed off on him boxing Garcia if the promotion gets a big enough piece of the pie.

“They told me you can do a boxing fight, 100 percent, if it makes us enough money,” O’Malley said on his TimboSugarShow podcast. “So the option’s there, it just has to be able to make enough money. But Ryan being a f****** freak like that, you need two A-sides to make a f****** Floyd-Conor fight.”

UFC famously allowed its biggest pay-per-view draw, Conor McGregor, to participate in a boxing match with the undefeated Floyd Mayweather in August 2017. It proved to be a prudent choice, as the event became one of the most successful in pay-per-view history, with all parties involved in the promotion of the event profiting greatly.

Those are the kinds of dollar signs O’Malley wants to see. The 29-year-old is coming off of the first defense of his UFC title, a unanimous decision win over rival Marlon Vera, and though he’s one of the most talked-about fighters on the roster, O’Malley still feels he needs to do more work to build his name.

“I’m not there yet,” O’Malley said. “I’ve still got to become bigger. Two more f****** sick performances and then we’re talking about being able to do whatever the f*** we want.”

O’Malley and Garcia both have a knack for generating headlines beyond just their impressive performances on fight night. This was particularly true for Garcia ahead of his fight with Haney, as he raised eyebrows and concerns over a series of bizarre social media tirades.

To O’Malley, those antics are just part of the game, but he’s curious to see where Garcia is headed now that the dust has settled on his win.

“I think he’s that crazy, he’s that good too,” O’Malley said. “He probably trained hard. Some people have different genes. I couldn’t do it. … He’s going to make his money. Let’s see where he goes in the next two weeks.

“Winning that big of a fight, making that much more money, having those s***** people around you, let’s see where he’s at mentally in two weeks.”

For Garcia’s part, he appears to be open to welcoming O’Malley to the squared circle.

The boxer posted the below responses to O’Malley on social media on Monday.

RAINBOW CACA BRAIN

WANTS TO BOX

BE PREPARED TO BLEED RAINBOW

MAN BUN

Slash Connor Clone

Wants a boxing match hmmm I wanted MMA but let’s do it

That’s my brothers name bitch @lilrushgee now I have to destroy you, LIL PONY CANNOT DEFEAT ME