Ryan Garcia calls out O'Malley: 'I'll beat his ass in MMA'
After calling for an MMA fight with Sean O'Malley over the weekend, Ryan Garcia is claiming that he can beat the UFC bantamweight champion at his own game.
"I'll beat his ass in MMA, guaranteed," the boxer told Ariel Helwani on "The MMA Hour." "I'm a natural, you don't understand. ... I'm strong, and I've got crazy conditioning."
He added: "I will come with everything I have, and I will destroy Sean O'Malley."
The latest exchange between the two fighters began Saturday when Garcia called on UFC CEO Dana White to pay him so he could fight O'Malley in the Octagon. "Suga" responded by saying he'd "kill" Garcia, who then told O'Malley to "set it up, Rainbow Head."
In August, the pair also clashed on social media after O'Malley defeated Aljamain Sterling for the bantamweight belt when Garcia told the newly crowned champ to "stop talking about this 'I'm going to box' stuff, you'll just get knocked out." O'Malley then asked, "Like you did, or different?"
"I know I'm going to knock him out in boxing, that's not even fair," Garcia told Helwani about a potential boxing match.
"What is fair is to test myself in MMA because I know if I put my mind to it, and I trained every day, and I had Nate (Diaz) helping me, even Alex Pereira ... and I really locked in, he will not beat me."
Garcia added that he's already texted White about a potential fight.
Although MMA stars such as Conor McGregor and Francis Ngannou have made the jump from the Octagon to the ring, few fighters have transitioned from boxing to MMA. James Toney famously fought Randy Couture in 2010, although Toney was submitted in the first round.
O'Malley is set to defend his bantamweight title at UFC 299 in a rematch against Marlon Vera. The 31-year-old Vera handed O'Malley his only loss in the UFC back in 2020.
Meanwhile, Garcia will face off against WBC super lightweight champion Devin Haney on April 20.
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