Sean O’Malley Chose Aiemann Zahabi After UFC Denied Petr Yan
Sean O’Malley said aiemann zahabi is now the opponent he got after the UFC rejected his request for Petr Yan. The bantamweight fighter said he asked for Yan first, then accepted Zahabi for the upcoming White House card.
Yan Turned Down, Zahabi In
“At first, I asked for Petr [Yan],” O’Malley said in an interview with MMA Fighting. “They said no. They didn’t say any reason, they didn’t say anything. They just said he’s not available. Then they offered me Aiemann and I said yeah.”
That sequence puts the White House booking in a narrower lane than the public chatter around his name suggested. O’Malley said the UFC was not handing him a free choice; it declined Yan, then moved him onto Zahabi, a shift that leaves the matchup driven more by availability than by preference.
Song Yadong Before Zahabi
“To be honest, I was trying to fight Aiemann my last fight and they said no. They gave me Song [Yadong],” O’Malley said. He added, “It’s kind of funny, people are acting like it’s my decision. I wanted to fight Aiemann last time and they said no, they gave me Song. I wanted to fight Petr, they said no. They gave me Aiemann. UFC does what UFC does and there’s a reason they’re the UFC. So here we are. I’m excited about the matchup.”
That is the complication in the story: the opponent some viewers may have read as a stylistic choice is also the one O’Malley says he wanted before, and the one the promotion denied before offering Song Yadong instead. The White House card becomes less about convenience and more about the UFC settling on the fight it would actually put in front of him.
Merab Dvalishvili Still Looms
O’Malley said the new booking does not guarantee a title shot even if he wins. “I’d like to say yes [they’ll give me a title shot] but I also just think if they weren’t going to give me the Petr Yan fight on the White House card, I don’t know if they’ll give it to me,” he said.
He also pointed to Merab Dvalishvili, who beat him one fight after he became bantamweight champion and then got an immediate rematch. “I don’t know. Merab fought four title fights in one year. I don’t know if they feel they owe him something. Four title fights in one year is absolutely insane. It really is. Maybe that’s where their head’s at. I know people are like ‘UFC doesn’t care about certain people’ and maybe they do feel like they need to give Merab a rematch or a title shot.’”
O’Malley’s cleanest path is simple: beat Zahabi and force the issue. If that does not move him ahead of Dvalishvili, he said he would wait for the next title fight and go from there. “I don’t know if a KO will put me in front of Merab. If it does, great. If it doesn’t, I’ll wait for them to fight and kind of go from there.”
