Sean O’Malley wants to be considered the bantamweight GOAT by the time his career is over.

O’Malley is a former UFC champion who defended his belt just once, but he is just 31-years-old, so he still has several years left. With that, he said his motivation right now is to reclaim his belt and cement himself as an all-time great.

“It’s always hard to say who’s the GOAT, who’s this, who’s that?” O’Malley said to UFC on Paramount+. “Looking back on my career, it’s like Aljamain Sterling was the GOAT until I knocked him out. And now Petr Yan can be considered the GOAT, I beat him. So it’s hard to say. Merab’s up there. Defended the belt three times. It’s hard to say who’s the GOAT.

“After it’s all said and done I’d like to consider myself the GOAT. I think Petr goes out there and beats Merab, I go out there and get a clear, decisive victory over Petr Yan, that’s two huge wins over two of the best, two out of the three. If Petr, Aljo, and Merab are the three GOATS in conversation, and I’ve beat two of them. I do want to get that Merab fight back someday, but it has to make sense timing-wise. It’s hard to say. It’s up for opinion. In my opinion, who’s the bantamweight GOAT? I guess we’ll get to find out Oct. 24 and go from there.”

Sean O’Malley using GOAT status as motivation

With O’Malley wanting to be considered the bantamweight GOAT, he knows he has to reclaim the belt and keep defending it.

So, as Sean O’Malley is closing in on a title shot, ‘Suga’ said he has a second wind of motivation now in his career, and that’s to be an all-time great.

“It’s interesting, the come-up, you’re motivated and then you get to a certain spot and then you realize you can really achieve greatness, so I feel like I have a second motivation now is to achieve real greatness and I have such opportunities—If I can get a win over Merab, if I can another win over Petr, if I can get a win over Umar [Nurmagomedov], if I can get a win over Cory [Sandhagen]. There’s so much greatness yet to be achieve that I feel like I still can accomplish, so there’s the motivation for greatness,” O’Malley is.

Sean O’Malley is 20-3 with one NC and is coming off a knockout win over Aiemann Zahabi.

Do you think Sean O’Malley is in the GOAT conversation at bantamweight?

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