Sean O’Malley has issued a statement after his UFC 324 opponent Song Yadong accused him of being “totally racist” during their face-off.
The bantamweight fighters collide in the co-main event of the first-ever UFC show on Paramount+, scheduled for the 24th of January at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. O’Malley and Yadong fight after Umar Nurmagomedov and Deiveson Figueiredo’s bantamweight bout, and just before the main event involving Justin Gaethje and Paddy Pimblett.
And though the UFC has been on a near-six week hiatus as it adjusts to the transition from leaving ESPN and joining Paramount+, there has still been plenty of drama behind-the-scenes with O’Malley apologizing for a recent tone-deaf stunt when standing across from Yadong.
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Sean O’Malley Apologizes
It all started when O’Malley wore a face mask, like the ones many wore from 2020 to 2022 when the coronavirus ran rampant across the world. For O’Malley, it was “supposed to be a little silly joke,” he told reporters this week, after Yadong — who is Chinese — accused him of being “totally racist.”
“My intentions were never harmful.”
He continued: “It got taken out of [context]. I apologize if I offended anybody.”
Yadong had previously told reporters: “I’m OK but I think don’t bring racism in this sport. Just keep it a sport. He already regretted it. He got an interview from China, he said he was sorry to fans.”
The fighter, ranked No.5 in the division, has shared the Octagon with the likes of Cory Sandhagen, Petr Yan, and Henry Cejudo, and therefore brings an extraordinary amount of experience into the cage for his fight against the American. And he feels O’Malley’s antics were little more than mental warfare.
“He’s trying to get inside of my head like a mind game.”
Yadong continued: “But I don’t care, I just focus on the fight. I don’t care. I just want to win the fight. Focused.”
O’Malley, three years older than Yadong at 31, is hoping to bounceback from two successive losses to Merab Dvalishvili in 2024-2025. Should he succeed against Yadong, he wants “Petr next,” he said.
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