O'MALLEY to Yan: "I'm Fighting You NEXT — I Don't Care"

O'Malley says the rematch is his even if the UFC books Song Yadong, while White says matchmakers are still choosing between the two.

"I'm fighting Petr Yan next. I don't care what you want. Even if they announce Petr vs. Song, I'm still fighting Petr next." Sean O'Malley did not wait for the UFC to decide. On his YouTube channel, reacting to UFC 333, he announced the rematch himself.

Nobody else has announced it. That is the whole fight right now: O'Malley says it is his, Dana White says it is a two-man choice, and the champion has already said the choice is not his to make.

O'Malley's Case

O'Malley's argument is brutally simple, and he laid it out in one breath: "Song fought Petr on one of my undercards when I defended my championship title, and Petr beat Song. I beat Petr. I beat Song. It's got to be me vs. Petr. As simple as that."

The wins are real. He beat Yan by split decision in 2022, a result many fans still dispute. He beat Song by unanimous decision at UFC 324 on January 24, then stopped Aiemann Zahabi at 4:02 of round two on June 14. Those two wins came after back-to-back title losses to Merab Dvalishvili.

His Ask

He wants the rematch in the United States in the first or second quarter of next year. He called it "the biggest bantamweight fight in UFC history." He also said he did not think Yan was avoiding him — but added, "I don't think he'd pick me if he got to."

On Instagram he posted photos of his wins over both men, with the line: "Petr Yan, while you're out there celebrating your victory I'm out here training."

White's Two-Man Race

White would not pick a winner between the two names. At the UFC 333 post-fight press conference he said: "Well, me and the matchmakers were texting the entire night about Song Yadong and, and O'Malley."

That is as far as the official word goes. No challenger named, no date announced. White described both men as strong options and treated the choice as a good problem to have.

Broadcaster Ariel Helwani has already picked his side. He called the O'Malley matchup the biggest available fight for Yan and said: "And so that's the one that I would do. I would do, I would do Yan versus Suga, that's a tremendous fight." That is Helwani's opinion, not a booking.

The Song Case

Song did not get the octagon question by accident. In the cage interview after Yan's win, Daniel Cormier asked Yan about Song rather than O'Malley. Watching, O'Malley called that "f***ing anticlimactic."

Song's own case is fresh. He knocked out Umar Nurmagomedov in the second round on August 29 in Shanghai. That is the kind of win that keeps a contender in the conversation even after losing the head-to-head with O'Malley in January.

Yan himself argued before the trilogy that Song deserved the opportunity more. At Wednesday's media day he criticized the UFC's repeated support for O'Malley and assessed Song as more well-rounded — while saying the choice was not his to make. He has also said he is open to the O'Malley rematch, telling MMA Fighting before UFC 333: "we have history."

What Yan Just Did

Yan earned the right to watch this argument play out. At UFC 333 on Saturday at Etihad Arena in Abu Dhabi, he beat Dvalishvili by unanimous decision, 48-47 on all three cards, retaining the bantamweight title. He lost the first two rounds and won the final three.

The trilogy is closed. The next question is open, and O'Malley is not waiting politely for the answer. If the UFC books Song first, O'Malley has already told them what he will say: he is fighting Petr next anyway.

So who should it be — the man who beat both, or the man Yan himself called more deserving?