Sean O’Malley’s coach Tim Welch believes his fighter is a tough matchup for Ilia Topuria.

This past Saturday, Topuria solidified his reign atop the featherweight division, knocking out Max Holloway in the main event of UFC 308. Next up for Topuria appears to be a rematch with former champion Alexander Volkanovski, with Diego Lopes also waiting in the wings. But while those matchup seem destined to take place, Welch believes Topuria’s biggest challenge could come from his bantamweight charge.

“I do think stylistically there is Sean could give Ilia problems,” Welch told Submission Radio. “He really could. But Ilia topuria is a very, very scary fight... You make one mistake with Ilia Topuria and you’re going to be lights out, looking up at the ceiling or whatever. That’s a scary, scary fight, but I do believe that Sean, with his range and with his speed and with his overall skill set, he could give Ilia problems. I do believe that.”

This is not the first time O’Malley’s camp has thrown out a possible matchup with Topuria. After successfully defending his bantamweight title against Chito Vera, “Suga” teased a possible champ vs. champ matchup, but was ultimately made to fight Merab Dvalishvili instead. Dvalishvili won a dominant decision to take the title and, at least for now, take a matchup with Topuria off the table.

One matchup that may be on the table for O’Malley is a rematch with Dvalishvili. Though UFC CEO Dana White has said Umar Nurmagomedov should be first up for Dvalishvili, both O’Malley and his rival have campaigned for the rematch. And if somehow the stars align and give O’Malley another crack at Dvalishvili, Welch is confident things will go differently this time, and put the Topuria matchup back on the table.

“A healthy Sean, I do believe we go out there and end up KOing Merab in between some sort of scramble or something,” Welch said. “On the in-betweens, I think Sean will be able to catch his chin and put him down.

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FIGHT ANNOUNCEMENTS

Ailin Perez (11-2) vs. Karol Rosa (18-6); UFC 311, Jan. 18.

FINAL THOUGHTS

I’m sure Topuria is losing sleep over Sean O’Malley moving up. I mean, what would he do? Sure, he could take Sean down easily and submit him, but he could also knock Sean into the next dimension. The plethora of choices for how to win would simply be too much for Topuria, breaking his brain and leading to a TKO (short circuit) victory for O’Malley.

EXIT POLL

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