Sean O’Malley Reveals Dream 9-Digit Figure Before Calling Quits From Fighting Career

Former bantamweight champion Sean O'Malley could walk away from the sport once he achieves a whopping financial target.

Sean O’Malley Reveals Dream 9-Digit Figure Before Calling Quits From Fighting Career

Sean O'Malley (via MMA Fighting)

In Short
  • Sean O'Malley aims to earn $100 million before retiring from fighting.
  • He earned $2 million for his title defense at UFC 299 and around $3 million for Noche UFC.
  • O'Malley seeks a rematch with Petr Yan to solidify his next title opportunity.

Conor McGregor remains the richest UFC fighter in history, amassing a net worth over $200 million from his fighting career. For a long time, “Suga” Sean O’Malley idolized the Irishman and wanted to have a similar impact and financial success. 

McGregor’s biggest payday came against Floyd Mayweather in a boxing bout rather than his MMA bouts. The Irish star earned more than $100 million from that fight, a rare nine-figure amount attained by a UFC star. It appears that O’Malley even has a similar goal in mind.

I do correlate my success to continue to grow the brand to do well. But now, I would say it’s still money motivated… I can live fine right now and never fight again. But there’s something Lil Baby said, ‘I can’t chill yet, I ain’t made a 100 mill yet.’… I wanna make $100M and call it quits, money still motivates me.

Sean O’Malley spoke on his goals

‘Suga’ is among the top 10 earners in the UFC among active competitors. He reportedly earned a whopping $2 million for his title defense against Marlon “Chito” Vera at UFC 299. Reportedly, his purse for the record-breaking Noche UFC event surpassed that of UFC 299. Reports suggest that the former bantamweight champion earned around $3 million for the fight.

However, since losing the title, Suga may have had his salary cut in half, due to the lack of a champion’s purse and PPV points. For his UFC 324 fight against Song Yadong, O’Malley still took a huge pay home, but it was nowhere near the previous amounts. He earned around $1 million according to BETMGM.com.

The bantamweight star needs to fight for the title again and win it to make bigger paychecks again. He found some momentum after defeating Yadong, but will have to wait until Petr Yan and Merab Dvalishvili settles their business with the 135-pound title on the line.

At 31 years old, O’Malley has at least three more years of prime as the bantamweight star has yet to take much damage. His losses came from a freak injury and lack of a wrestling defense. At no point has Suga taken a lot of head strikes in his career. As such, he can still fight at the top level and be part of many high-profile bouts.

The division still has a fresh matchup for O’Malley with Umar Nurmagomedov close by in the rankings. However, the American contender is dead set on running things back with Petr Yan should the Russian continue as the division’s champion.

Sean O’Malley and Petr Yan involved in a hilarious back-and-forth

Sean O’Malley always try to add some uniqueness to his personality and brand. One of the ways O’Malley attracts the online audience is from his one-liner tweets online and hilarious skits with his coach Tim Welch. It has often sparked mixed reactions from fighters and fans alike. Nevertheless, O’Malley continues to be that version of himself at all times.

Sean O'Malley wants Petr Yan rematch
Sean O’Malley wants Petr Yan rematch (via Bloody Elbow)

This recently led to a hilarious back-and-forth between Suga and Petr Yan. For some reason, Suga wrote, “America vs. Thailand“, and Yan responded that he was Russian. Immediately, Suga apologized for the mistake to end the back-and-forth tweets.

One fan even speculated that Yan’s time spent training at Tiger Muay Thai gym in Thailand could be why O’Malley thought about Thailand. At some point, Yan and O’Malley should definitely run things back. After all, their first fight had a controversial decision as many believed that Yan had done enough to secure victory.

The judges awarded a split-decision victory to Sean O’Malley after three rounds of action-packed sequences at UFC 280. If the Russian remains the champ at the end of 2026, there is a definite possibility of O’Malley fighting for the title as there is so much history there. However, at the moment, O’Malley needs to fight another contender to solidify his next title opportunity.

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