Ilia Topuria (and his mother) veto Sean O’Malley super fight: ‘Our Merab has earned this fight’

“Suga” won’t be climbing weight classes anytime soon until he fights fellow Georgian fighter, Merab Dvalishvili.

Sorry, Sean O’Malley, your request for a “super” fight against newly-minted Featherweight champion, Ilia Topuria, has been rejected by “El Matador” and ... his mother?

O’Malley successfully defended his Bantamweight title at UFC 299, pummeling Marlon “Chito” Vera across five rounds to win a shutout 50-45 decision (watch highlights here). After the fight, he called for a “Champion vs. Champion” showdown with Topuria, who himself is disinterested with the current crop of 145-pound title challengers.

It’s an exciting and bankable fight for sure, but not one Topuria is willing to accept at this moment.

“Suga, congrats. Was a beautiful performance!” Topuria wrote on Twitter in response to O’Malley’s callout. “There is a fight chasing you with Merab [Dvalishvili]. Get that done first.”

Perhaps O’Malley didn’t realize that Topuria and Dvalishvili are both Georgian fighters who consider each other brothers. When they both competed at UFC 298, they cut weight together. In addition, the pair build each other up — and as Dvalishvili has proven — they aren’t willing to step on each others’ title aspirations.

Celebrate wildly, too.

Even Topuria’s mother was quick to dismiss a Topuria vs. O’Malley fight with Dvalishvili waiting in the wings.

“It’s been a long time since our Merab has earned this fight and it needs to happen!” Inga Topuria wrote in the comments of a Facebook post.

She’s right about that.

After a rough 0-2 start in UFC, Dvalishvili has gone 10-0 in the Bantamweight division. His last three opponents were former champions Jose Aldo, Petr Yan and Henry Cejudo. He handled all three with relative ease. After six years of non-stop winning, it’s time for “The Machine” to get his shot at championship gold.

This is the second time O’Malley has called out Topuria hoping fan sentiment would carry him into a lucrative fight with the European star. “El Matador” has the nations of Georgia and Spain behind him, and is on the cusp of legitimate super-stardom. While Dvalishvili is finally starting to get the appreciation he deserves from fans, there’s no question which man boosts O’Malley’s pay-per-view (PPV) earnings into the stratosphere ... and it ain’t the wrestling-heavy “Machine.”

Bet on it.

Everyone keeps telling “Suga” to fight Dvalishvili, and to his credit, he’s been willing if slightly less eager to accept that fight.

“I wanted the Ilia fight, it excites me, but I also thought the fans would get excited about it,” O’Malley said leading up to UFC 299. “I got a lot of pushback saying ‘you’re ducking Merab, Merab is next.’ So, Merab’s next. Let’s do Merab. I’m telling you guys, I knock Merab out.

“He’s sloppy,” O’Malley concluded. “I’m accurate. I’m too fast. I’m too sharp. I put Merab’s lights out — worse than Aljo.”

No more bulls—t.

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