Sean O’Malley vs. Ilia Topuria Is A Slam Dunk For Tim Welch
Tim Welch made an appearance on MMAFighting.com‘s “The MMA Hour,” and he admitted that he feels a bout between O’Malley and Topuria would be box office.
“Who wouldn’t want to see that fight?” Welch said on The MMA Hour. “That would be a sweet fight. Ilia’s one of our favorite fighters to watch. He’s one of the most technical, sound guys out there, just watching his boxing. But I have seen them in the same room, I’ve seen them — Ilia’s not way bigger [than O’Malley]. And Ilia’s an orthodox guy, he’s got a really wide stance, he’s got a super linear stance — and we’ve been fighting orthodox boxers [O’Malley’s] whole career. Orthodox boxers like that who are good, they really want to get their jab started. It’s just a good fight for Sean. He’s good at knocking them out.
“And I think you can kind of hear it in Ilia’s voice when you even bring up Sean. It doesn’t seem like he’s that interested in that. It’s like, why wouldn’t you be that interested in that? That’s a huge fight, especially for Ilia. But Ilia brings up Conor McGregor. It’s like, OK, so you’re going fight Conor McGregor at 185 pounds? That just doesn’t even seem realistic at all. But [Topuria vs. O’Malley is] definitely a fight that is interesting. And people who say, ‘Oh my God, [O’Malley is] so stupid, Ilia would kill him,’ it’s like, yeah, that’s what everyone said about Petr Yan, that’s what everyone said about [Aljamain Sterling].”
O’Malley is set to put his UFC Bantamweight Championship on the line against Marlon “Chito” Vera at UFC 299 on March 9.