February 27, 2024 4:20 pm ET
UFC bantamweight champion Sean O’Malley is baffled by boxing star Ryan Garcia saying he’d beat him in an MMA fight.
Garcia issued O’Malley (17-1 MMA, 9-1 UFC) a challenge – but in MMA.
Garcia (24-1, 20 KOs), who meets Devin Haney (31-0, 15 KOs) on April 20 in Las Vegas, is adamant he’d beat O’Malley in the octagon.
“I’ll beat his ass in MMA, guaranteed,” Garcia said on “The MMA Hour.” “You don’t understand, I’m a natural wrestler. I just beat my security who’s a wrestler. I beat him. I’m strong, and I got crazy conditioning. I know I’m going to knock him out in boxing. That’s not even fair. What is fair is to test myself in MMA because I know if I put my mind to it and train every day and I had Nate (Diaz) helping me, even Alex Pereira, all of them and I really locked in, he will not beat me.
“I will come with everything I have, and I will destroy Sean O’Malley in the UFC. I’ve already sent text messages to Dana (White). I’ve already got people that are connected to Dana to ask him. Let’s do this. I’ll come to the UFC. Pay me a bag and I’m there. I’m down to do it.”
O’Malley dismissed Garcia’s bold claims, saying he’d stand no chance.
“Brother, I would kill you within minutes,” O’Malley said on his “TimboSugarShow.” “It’s just not even realistic. … It’s crazy how stupid and delusional that is. I wonder if people think that when I call out boxer, though. Is it the same kind of thing? It is a little bit crazy when I call out boxers. A little bit, not a ton. Not 100 percent crazy, but a little bit. But when boxers say they want to fight in MMA, it’s 100 percent crazy.
“I don’t even need to f*cking take him down. I mean I could take him down and choke him, but I would kick him in the f*cking body. I would kick his little sticks, I would do whatever the f*ck I wanted to him. I could box him with MMA gloves. It’s a different sport just with those little MMA gloves. The distance is different. I could beat him and Devin Haney in the same night, back to back in a fight. Pure delusion.”
O’Malley makes his first title defense in a rematch against Marlon Vera in the UFC 299 main event March 9 at Kaseya Center in Miami.
For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 299.
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