Sean O’Malley vs. Song Yadong UFC 324 fighter breakdown who mirrored ‘Suga’ for Petr Yan

Sean O’Malley is a big figure in the bantamweight division as the former 135-pound kingpin heads into a major fight when it comes to informing his trajectory in the weight class, and a newly minted Rizin champion has weighed in. Ilkhom Nozimov is the RFF champion in question and replicated O’Malley’s style for Petr Yan during training sessions at Tiger Muay Thai prior to the O’Malley vs. Yan clash from years ago.

As someone who is intimately familiar with ‘Suga’s’ style and when asked for his thoughts on O’Malley’s impending fight with Song Yadong at UFC 324 on January 24, Nozimov said: [via Bowks Talking Bouts],

“Yes, I like Sean O’Malley, I like his style. I think we have some similarities, but also Song Yadong is a nice, pretty tough opponent, a tough guy. And whoever is going to impose his fighting style that night, he’s going to win.”

Sean O’Malley reacts to being invited to the UFC 324 co-main event

Sean O’Malley now finds himself in a more prominent position within the card’s hierarchy at UFC 324 and recently gave his thoughts on that restructuring. With Kayla Harrison withdrawing from the evening’s initially scheduled penultimate fight against the returning Amanda Nunes, O’Malley vs. Yadong now finds himself in the co-main event slot. With O’Malley’s fight cache and the UFC kicking off their new media rights deal with Paramount, ‘Suga’ made sense to slide into that vacant penultimate spot on the card.

Although the superstar has stated that he is on social media much less these days, O’Malley’s social media presence was used to convey his thoughts on the recent shift with the scheduling of the UFC 324 fights. The former bantamweight titleholder posted a video suggesting a more subdued and tempered sentiment around being put on the card via a goofy video he’s used to posting on his social media.