O'Malley Denies Ducking Payton Talbott: 'He Made It Up'

Payton Talbott wanted the biggest name at 135 pounds, so after flattening Deiveson Figueiredo in the first round at UFC 332, he grabbed the mic and called out Sean O'Malley. O'Malley heard it loud and clear — he's just not going to let the kid write the story.

Talbott has floated the idea that the two nearly fought at UFC White House back in June, a claim O'Malley flatly rejects. Speaking on The SuGuru Show, O'Malley swore on his family that he was never offered the fight, arguing that nobody books the A-side without asking the A-side first. His verdict: Talbott invented it. That said, he's got zero issue with the callout itself.

The Yan Factor

The real holdup is a trilogy. O'Malley is parked, waiting on the UFC 333 bantamweight title bout between Petr Yan and Merab Dvalishvili on Oct. 24 in Abu Dhabi. He owns a split-decision win over Yan and figures a rematch makes obvious sense if Yan reclaims the belt. If Yan wins, O'Malley says he's happily "ducking" Talbott — for the tougher fight.

The Dvalishvili math is uglier. Merab has beaten O'Malley twice, even if Suga keeps insisting he won the first one, and he knows the promotion isn't rushing to book a third. So if Dvalishvili walks out with the strap again, Talbott suddenly becomes the logical next move, and O'Malley says he'll squabble.

Résumé Defense

O'Malley leaned hard on his schedule to push back on the ducking narrative. He pointed out that his last seven fights have included Yan, Aljamain Sterling and Dvalishvili — three of the division's heaviest names — and claimed he beat all of them at least once. He also needled Talbott's recent résumé, noting that Figueiredo (now 25-8-1) and Henry Cejudo are former 125-pound champs who were smaller and older than the 28-year-old Talbott. Why drop in size, he asked, when Yan is right there?

None of it comes with any real venom. O'Malley said he clocked Talbott back on the Contender Series and figured they'd cross paths eventually. He likes the style, likes the swag, and most of all likes the free headlines. For a guy who wasn't booked on the card and hadn't been in the news, getting called out on a pay-per-view is exactly the kind of PR he'll take every time.