Sean O’Malley thinks Cory Sandhagen made a dumb decision by accepting a headlining bout against undefeated bantamweight bruiser Umar Nurmagomedov for UFC Nashville. Instead, “The Sandman” should have handpicked the lowest opponent available for the highest amount of money.
Sandhagen, who now fights Rob Font after an injury to Nurmagomedov, doesn’t subscribe to that “weak” line of thinking.
“There are things about Sean O’Malley that I think are just like, super lame,” Sandhagen told Shakiel Mahjouri (transcribed by MMA News). “Talking about things like, ‘You fight the worst guy for the most amount of money.’ Everything being like, business decisions. It’s like, I can’t connect with that type of thinking at all. To me, those are ways of thinking that are just weak and they’re ways of thinking that are gonna trend into ruining the sport a little bit, in my opinion.”
The No. 2-ranked O’Malley will fight the best opponent available when he collides with reigning bantamweight champion Aljamain Sterling atop the UFC 292 pay-per-view (PPV) event later this month in Boston, and has no plans to defend his newly-won strap against the No. 4-ranked Sandhagen.
That’s because the business-savvy ‘Sugar” will “pick and choose” his opponents.
“You should want to fight the best guy,” Sandhagen continued. “If you’re here to be the actual world champion, that’s what we’re doing. I don’t see this as a business really. I make good money now, I’m good. The greediness and the business decision things that happen in a lot of these ways of thinking are, to me, lame. I don’t think that passing on the message that you should fight the worst guy for the most amount of money — that is just such a weak way of thinking.”
A victory over Font would certainly bolster his argument.
MMAmania.com will deliver LIVE round-by-round, blow-by-blow coverage of the entire UFC Nashville fight card RIGHT HERE, starting with the ESPN/ESPN+ preliminary card bouts at 6 p.m. ET, followed by the ESPN/ESPN+ main card start time at 9 p.m. ET.
To check out the latest and greatest UFC Nashville news and notes be sure to hit up our comprehensive event archives here and here. For the updated and finalized “Sandhagen vs. Font” fight card and ESPN/ESPN+ lineup click here.
This story originally appeared on MMA Mania
