T.J. Dillashaw thinks Cory Sandhagen is a bad matchup for Sean O’Malley.

Sandhagen called for O’Malley (18-2 MMA, 10-2 UFC) after “The Suga Show” lost his bantamweight title to Merab Dvalishvili (18-4 MMA, 11-2 UFC) by unanimous decision in the UFC 306 main event at Sphere in Las Vegas. Dillashaw thought Dvalishvili made O’Malley look very weak in the fight.

Sandhagen (17-5 MMA, 10-4 UFC) thinks fans would salivate for a striking battle between him and O’Malley, but former champion Dillashaw thinks it wouldn’t even be competitive.

“I think he pieces Sean up,” Dillashaw said on the Jaxxon Podcast. “When they were getting ready to give a title fight to someone, I thought that Sandhagen would’ve been a dope fight for him. I think Sandhagen’s just better at what O’Malley is good at, to be honest. He’s just more dangerous. But O’Malley’s got great feints. I would love to see that fight.”

Dillashaw knows first hand how good Sandhagen is on the feet. He fought Sandhagen in July 2021, edging him out in a close decision win by using his grappling.

However, Sandhagen may not get his desired fight with O’Malley just yet, after O’Malley announced that he’s set to undergo surgery Oct. 3 for a torn labrum in his left hip, which he suffered 10 weeks prior to his fight with Dvalishvili.

Things are heating up between former UFC champion Sean O’Malley and boxing star Devin Haney.

O’Malley wasn’t going to stay quiet about Haney’s recent comments on his bantamweight title loss to Merab Dvalishvili earlier this month at UFC 306. Haney posted on X, “O’Malley’s b*tch ass lost..” after the fight and in a recent video, O’Malley finally addressed that remark.

“Boxers are f*cking pussies,” O’Malley said on his YouTube channel. “Devin Haney is a b*tch. If David Haney really wants to fight, I’ll put a million dollars me vs. him, no time limit, and we can fight. MMA rules, just a fight, or we can do no rules, so if you wanna eye poke me you can. Let’s do a real f*cking fight. You wanna talk sh*t on Twitter? Really, really actually fight or just don’t talk sh*t.

“Either don’t talk sh*t or let’s actually fight. I would box and put $1 million of my money. Boxing rules just to protect him. I would just simply box him, but he wouldn’t just simply fight me. Don’t talk sh*t.”

Haney appeared to be all in on the challenge as he issued a response Monday on X. However, Haney is only down if the purse was higher than $1 million.

“I don’t fight for a million dollars like you.. @SugaSeanMMA let’s do a boxing fight & give us a shot at making real money!”

I don’t fight for a million dollars like you.. @SugaSeanMMA let’s do a boxing fight & give us a shot at making real money! https://t.co/6smx6Ibt5p

— Devin Haney (@Realdevinhaney) September 23, 2024

O’Malley is expected to undergo hip surgery on Oct. 3 to address an injury he sustained during camp for his title defense against Dvalishvili (18-4 MMA, 11-2 UFC). He expects to be out of competition anywhere from six months to a year.

O’Malley has expressed interest in the past to take his skills to the boxing world in potential fights with Gervonta Davis and Ryan Garcia, and now Haney.

Firas Zahabi, the head coach of UFC legend Georges St-Pierre, was impressed with Merab Dvalishvili’s wrestling at UFC 306, but if the new bantamweight champ wants to become a big star, he has to change his style.

Dvalishvili earned a unanimous decision against Sean O’Malley in the main event of the UFC’s most recent pay-per-view card earlier this month. Zahabi is familiar with Dvalishvili as a person and as a fighter, but he’d like to see “The Machine” pick up a few wins that don’t involve the judges.

“On the ground, guys, I’ll tell you something, Merab never finishes,” Zahabi said on the Tristar Gym YouTube channel. “Look, I love Merab… I love his personality. I love the craziness, I love the fact that in the beginning of Round 1, Merab is yelling at O’Malley’s corner. … He’s a very charming, lovable character. Dana White called him a moron, he’s like, ‘Ahhh, that guy’s a moron.’ … The only one thing you can predict about Merab is that he’s going to shoot that takedown. His cardio is un-matchable.

“The good thing about Merab, his cardio is amazing. His personality is amazing. The bad thing about Merab, he doesn’t finish — he doesn’t even get close to a finish.”

Throughout St-Pierre’s impressive championship run, he also went to his fair share of decisions. While that gets you victories, it may not get the fan base behind you.

Zahabi was along for the ride with “Rush,” all the way until St-Pierre stopped Michael Bisping at UFC 217 in November 2017 to capture the middleweight title in his final fight. Zahabi’s hope is that Dvalishvili can start adding stoppages to his résumé, and believes if he doesn’t, the fans will turn on him — and quickly.

“His finishing record is abysmal, I’ve got to be honest,” Zahabi said. “I’m telling you guys, I love the guy, he’s a world champion. I think he’s awesome. However, his finishing rate — imagine you can take down almost everybody you’ve ever fought, and you literally only have one submission. That doesn’t make any sense. … You’re literally taking everybody down, how come you never finish?

“He needs to have in-depth, super-deep courses on how to finish — submission, ground-and-pound — he has to change his style. And he can do it. He’s a very talented, intelligent guy. He needs to do it, because if he doesn’t do it, the fans will get sick of him. … They’ll get sick of him running around the ring and just taking people down. They’re going to get sick of that. He has to entertain the crowd, he has to show finishing ability. If he doesn’t, it could be disastrous to his career.”

Daniel Cormier doesn’t see much use in making Tom Aspinall the official backup for UFC 309.

It’s not that he thinks an injury or last-minute withdrawal from Jon Jones or Spite Miocic isn’t possible. Cormier just thinks if something were to happen to either guy, neither Jones (27-1 MMA, 21-1 UFC) nor Miocic (15-3 MMA, 8-1 UFC) will be willing to fight the UFC interim heavyweight champion on short notice.

“Aspinall is officially the backup fighter, but what happens if somebody gets hurt?” Cormier said on his YouTube channel. “Which one of those dudes is going to say, ‘OK, I’ll fight Tom Aspinall,’? Which one will actually stay in the fight?

“Pavlovich was the backup fighter in New York City when Jones and Stipe were scheduled to fight the first time. Jones got hurt, Stipe pulled out, and Aspinall fought against Pavlovich. There’s no guarantee that, because he’s the backup fighter, someone is going to fight him. I would almost guess that if someone gets hurt, Tom Aspinall stays on the card, and he fights neither one of those guys. … Neither one of those guys is fighting Tom Aspinall if they don’t have to.”

Cormier hopes he’s wrong. He wants to see Jones fight Aspinall eventually. After all, Jones is the UFC heavyweight champion and Aspinall the interim. He believes that’s the only fight Jones needs for his legacy and to claim being the No. 1 heavyweight today.

“Hearing Jones say, or hearing the rumor that Jones said ‘this is it for me,’ it sucks because I do believe that there’s some work to be done with Aspinall, mainly,” Cormier said. “I don’t think anyone else warrants him sticking around. I really don’t. We saw what he did to Ciryl Gane.”

For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 309.

Teddy Atlas welcomes Dana White to boxing.

The UFC CEO has never minced his words when it comes to his feelings about how corrupt he thinks the boxing model is. After dancing around the idea of “Zuffa Boxing” for years, White finally decided to commit to his involvement in the sport.

Atlas thinks White’s presence would only add value to what Turki Alalshikh has already built.

“I say come on in – come on in, we need you,” Atlas told Submission Radio. “Turki Alalshikh has helped boxing tremendously by making fights the promoters couldn’t make. They didn’t want to make (them) because they didn’t own both sides. They didn’t control both sides, so the fans suffered, didn’t get the fights they wanted. The sport suffered. This sport was getting less and less relevant. This sport is the longest sport in the history of sports. They find drawings of guys throwing punches on caves two thousand years ago. This sport shouldn’t be irrelevant, but it was becoming that because of the promoters with the networks, with their sugar daddies.

“They were just making the fights to keep their guys undefeated, to get to the next big fight – non-competitive fights, and every once in a while they threw you a bone. It wasn’t enough. The fans were starving. Then Turki Alalshikh came along from Saudi (Arabia) with the money, and in the last year he made fights that the sport needs. Dana White does that. He’s been doing that forever over at the UFC. Yeah, I know it’s one guy in charge and people call him a dictator. Listen, if a dictator ain’t chopping heads off and he’s getting things done, sometimes maybe we could learn a little something. We could use rules in this (boxing) world right now. We could use a direction in this world right now. He’d make the fights that you’d need to make.”

Atlas also defended fighter pay in the UFC, and the constant critique White has gotten from the likes of Jake Paul.

“Yeah people will say, ‘What are people going to get paid?’ UFC, he created a hell of a brand, and it wasn’t a complicated formula: Make the fights that people want to see, and the brand will grow because the fans will grow it,” Atlas said. “People say they don’t get paid. It is trickling down. The stars are being born, They’re making the bigger money. Same thing in boxing, but then it starts to trickle down. Yes, I want everyone paid, but when you build something, there is more to give then. Then it will trickle down, then it will go to all the other fighters on the totem pole.

“The bottom line is, the brand will be stronger. The brand of boxing has become stronger because of Turki Alalshikh making these fights. It will become stronger in a more spread out way if maybe the two of them join together. If Dana White brings his model into boxing, to have the infrastructure, to have enforcement of rules, to have the kind of fights that people want, that people have only been getting in the last year. If he brings that, and he would bring that, Teddy would say, ‘Hey Dana, come on in this way. Welcome. Welcome.’”

Everton’s new owners are interested in Gareth Southgate as manager, Liverpool plot a raid for Bayern Munich trio, and Premier League sides eye Joe Gomez.

Everton prospective owner Dan Friedkin has identified Gareth Southgate, 54, as a potential candidate to replace his fellow Englishman Sean Dyche, 53, as manager at Goodison Park. (GiveMeSport), external

Liverpool are preparing to raid Bayer Leverkusen for their Germany midfielder Florian Wirtz, 21, Netherlands defender Jeremie Frimpong, 23, and Argentina midfielder Exequiel Palacios, 25. (CaughtOffside), external

The Reds also remain interested in signing Spain midfielder Martin Zubimendi, 25, from Real Sociedad in the January window. (Fabrizio Romano, via TeamTalk), external

Liverpool and England defender Joe Gomez, 27, is wanted by Aston Villa and Newcastle. (Football Insider), external

Real Madrid are monitoring Nottingham Forest defender Murillo, 22, but face competition from Barcelona and Bayern Munich for the Brazilian. (HITC), external

Newcastle, Manchester United and Tottenham are among the clubs interested in Lille and England midfielder Angel Gomes, 24. (GiveMeSport), external