Sean O’Malley knows what’s at stake and he’s not pretending otherwise. The former UFC bantamweight champion enters UFC 324 on Jan. 24 at T-Mobile Arena with urgency bordering on finality. Tasked with snapping a two-fight skid, O’Malley will face the dangerous Song Yadong in a fight that could determine not just his title trajectory but how long “Suga” sticks around at all.
At 31, O’Malley remains one of the division’s most recognizable stars, but he’s also increasingly candid about the realities of a career in combat sports. “It’s almost so pointless to predict what I want to do in the next five years, two years, three years,” O’Malley said on his YouTube channel.