Cases of mixed martial arts fighters entering boxing and meeting local stars have become more common. This direction was essentially opened by Conor McGregor, who with his fight with Floyd Mayweather showed everyone that this is quite real.
Now the ambassador of MMA fighters in boxing is Francis Ngannou. But the opposite situation, when boxers try themselves in mixed martial arts, has not yet come true, but, apparently, this moment will come soon. For example, Terence Crawford already expressed such a desire once, and Deontay Wilder spoke specifically about the UFC and the fight with Francis Ngannou.
Francisco Ngannou
Photo: Alex Pantling/Getty Images
Now, perhaps the main pop star in world boxing, Ryan García, has taken the floor. His target was the favorite of the UFC and specifically Dana White: Sean O’Malley. Overall, Sugar initially, after winning the belt, talked about a fight with Gervonta Davis, which made Garcia very angry.
The closest copy of McGregor?
O’Malley is the new McGregor. Same tactics, exaggerations and even knockouts.
And now Ryan stopped by journalist Ariel Helwani’s popular show The MMA Hour and publicly challenged O’Malley to a fight, with Garcia offering to fight according to the rules of mixed martial arts: “In MMA I will kick O’Malley’s ass. O’Malley, I guarantee it. you. You don’t understand that I am a born fighter. I took out my guard, which is a basic fighter. I’m strong, I have crazy conditioning. I know I will knock Sean out in boxing, it won’t be fair to fight him in the ring. It’s only fair that we meet in MMA to test ourselves because I know that if I focus on that, with Nate Diaz and Alex Pereira helping me, O’Malley won’t be able to beat me. “I will show everything I can and destroy Sean O’Malley in the UFC.”
Ryan Garcia
Photo: Carmen Mandato/Getty Images
García’s only condition is a good rate. He then he is ready to fit into the fight with Sugar immediately after the fight with Devin Haney: “I already wrote to Dana, my people also contacted him and asked him to organize this fight. Pay and I’m in business. Ready to fight Sean after meeting Devin Haney. Just give me three or four months of pure MMA training and I’ll kick his ass. Every month I will have a new coach: Conor, Pereira, Díaz, someone else. Will be great”.
It is obvious that García’s goal is not only to fight, but also to put on a show, hence the mentions of other stars. But Ryan’s promoter, Oscar De La Hoya, liked the idea: “I actually like O’Malley. Great drummer. I’ve researched him and can say with confidence that he would be great. I would root for him because Ryan could be in the main event with this guy. I think he could fight Dana White in the co-main event of the night. In fact, there has been no hostility between us for a long time. We’re doing well, but that doesn’t mean we can’t start a mess, right?
Oscar de la hoya
Photo: Francois Nel/Getty Images
Dana White does not like being a co-promoter, although he agreed to these conditions before the Mayweather-McGregor fight. So the chances of boxing stars entering the UFC are much greater than dragging the promotion’s boss and his star somewhere else. So from this point of view, both Garcia and De la Hoya are doing everything right. True, this does not negate the fact that such a tournament will probably become the strangest in the history of mixed martial arts. And at the same time, this is not the first time Dana has been called to fight. Tito Ortiz came closest to this at one point, but in the end the fight didn’t happen. Now De la Hoya wants to finish what he started.
Sean O’Malley has already responded to Ryan’s challenge: “I would have finished him off in minutes. I could knock him down and strangle him, but I’ll kick him in the damn body, kick in his little peg legs. I’ll do what he wants. I can box with him using MMA gloves; It’s a different sport with these gloves. The distance becomes different. “I can beat him and Devin Haney on the same night, one after the other.”
Of course, O’Malley himself is interested in these challenges. Sean often speaks specifically about the business of combat sports, so a fight for money with a boxer in the octagon seems like a winning lottery ticket. And Dana White usually doesn’t miss an opportunity to make a big statement about the UFC, so if negotiations really begin, we will have a very strange but noisy tournament.
