Sean O’Malley and Daniel Cormier Settle Differences After Petr Yan Interview Snubbed ‘Suga Show’ for Title Shot

UFC legend Daniel Cormier drew the ire of Sean O’Malley and his coach at UFC 333. After Petr Yan and Merab Dvalishvili settled their trilogy bout, Cormier mentioned Song Yadong’s name to the Russian champion. One reason could be that Yadong’s appearance in the crowd prompted it.

At the same time, Yan vs O’Malley 2 is one of the biggest fight that the UFC can put on right now. O’Malley has a win over the current champion, and he also defeated Yadong earlier this year. This makes ‘Suga’ the contender to face the champion next.

Recently, Cormier had O’Malley on his YouTube channel to discuss their differences. O’Malley didn’t like ‘ DC’ mention Yadong and not him. Cormier clarified why he conducted the octagon interview at UFC 333 that way while speaking to ‘Suga.’

I’m gonna be completely honest with you… the trucks in my ear were going, ‘We’re going to show Song.’ I actually forgot that you just beat Song Yadong… Me, Joe [Rogan], and Jon [Anik] believe O’Malley should fight for the belt right now.

Daniel Cormier via his YT Channel

—Today, on a special episode of The Daniel Cormier Show, I am joined by Sugar Sean O’Malley. There was a lot of buzz around the post-fight interview with champion Petr Yan, so I wanted to talk with Sean about it. We talked about that and why he feels he deserves a championship opportunity next. At 135, live at 5 PM Eastern/2 PM Pacific, on my YouTube channel (link ⬇️) https://t.co/tGcfgGuVey

— Daniel Cormier (@dc_mma) October 27, 2026

O’Malley’s coach, Tim Welch, was the first one to react. He complained that Cormier may have had something against O’Malley after watching DC interview Yan at UFC 333.

On the same night, another fighter complained about Cormier as well. Dominick Reyes knocked out Azamat Murzakanov and later complained about DC’s commentary favoring the Russian fighter.

In the past, Daniel Cormier has received criticism for overly glazing Russian and Dagestani fighters. His reaction to Umar Nurmagomedov’s first career knockout loss remains the best example.

Although Reyes did not come to a compromise with DC, O’Malley heard Cormier out and settled their differences. Later, he revealed how the collaboration happened on another interview.

Sean O’Malley explains how he settled differences with Daniel Cormier

‘Suga’ went on Ariel Helwani’s show where he discussed a wide variety of topics. Helwani wanted to know how O’Malley and Cormier collaborated to settle their differences.

O’Malley stated that Cormier reached out on Instagram and made it clear that ‘Suga’ deserved to fight Yan for the title.

DC messaged me on Instagram. He said, ‘Hey, I do think that you should fight for the title.’ I messaged him back and said, ‘Hey bro, I don’t take anything personal.’

Sean O’Malley told Ariel Helwani

Sean O’Malley reveals Daniel Cormier reached out to him after not mentioning his name as a potential next opponent for Petr Yan during the post-fight interview: “DC messaged me on Instagram. He said, ‘Hey, I do think that you should fight for the title.’ I messaged him back and said, ‘Hey bro, I don’t take anything personal.’ Even if Daniel Cormier thought Song was deserving, I wouldn’t care. We ended up talking last night. He said he thinks I’m deserving, he thinks I should be next and all that. It was good. It was cordial. I definitely have felt before that DC had a little bias against me. Coming up, it felt like he kind of wanted to see me lose a little bit. At one point I felt like that. Now I don’t feel like that. At the end of the day, commentating is a hard job. You’re not always gonna say the right thing.”

— Ariel Helwani (@arielhelwani) October 27, 2026

The Montana native did admit that he felt Cormier wanted him to lose after hearing his commentary in the past. This is something that Tim Welch also accused Cormier of.

However, after speaking with DC, O’Malley revealed that he no longer felt that way. He understood that commentary gig was not easy and DC couldn’t say the right things all the time.

Sean O’Malley explains why he is next for Petr Yan

The first encounter between Sean O’Malley and Petr Yan took place back in 2022. The duo competed at UFC 280 in the co-main event spot and stole the show. Back then, O’Malley upset Yan as the betting underdog and earned a title shot.

‘Suga’ landed more significant strikes in the fight as he outstruck Yan 84 to 58 in three rounds. Meanwhile, the Russian had 6 takedowns from 13 attempts. Many believed that Yan did enough to win on the scorecard, but some argued that O’Malley landed the better significant strikes.

After UFC 333, O’Malley admitted that Song Yadong and Mario Bautista deserves a title shot. However, he pointed out that the promotion wants to book the biggest fights possible.

Sean O’Malley has no doubt he’s next for Petr Yan: “I just absolutely cannot see it going any other way. If you break it down from a sane standpoint, I have a win over Song this year. Song’s super deserving. Mario Bautista is very deserving of a title shot. I just have a win over Petr, and I do have that win over Song eight months ago. I’m not worried about it. The UFC makes the biggest fights, and not only is this the biggest fight, it makes sense."

— Ariel Helwani (@arielhelwani) October 27, 2026

‘Suga’ has eyed the Yan rematch for a long time. As such, Yadong and Bautista may have to wait a bit longer. All signs point to O’Malley getting the next title shot against Yan to compete in a highly-anticipated rematch next year.

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