O'Malley shuts down Garbrandt's callout: 'You wonder if that's CTE'

UFC bantamweight Sean O'Malley believes he's in the driver's seat when it comes to a fight with Cody Garbrandt happening or not. And as of right now, he's not interested.

"(Garbrandt is) not getting that fight," O'Malley said on his "TimboSugarShow" podcast.

After Garbrandt lost to Kai Kara-France in his flyweight debut last month, the former UFC bantamweight champion said O'Malley was one of the few opponents he wanted next.

But O'Malley doesn't think Garbrandt - who is 1-5 in his past six fights, with four of those losses ending by knockout - should even be thinking about him at this point.

"It doesn't make sense for him to say that," O'Malley, who went 3-0 in 2021 to break into the top 15 at bantamweight, said of Garbrandt's recent callout. "You wonder if that's CTE.

"That fight's not happening, at least not next," O'Malley continued. "It just doesn't make sense, dude. It literally just doesn't make sense."

O'Malley's comments indicate a change in heart. He previously targeted Garbrandt as a matchup that would garner a lot of attention. And while O'Malley isn't closing the door on the fight for good, he said it would have to take place once Garbrandt returns to the win column.

"I go out there and knock out Cody, it's like, he's 1-8," O'Malley said. "I lose to Cody, I lose to someone who's looked at as kind of who sucks now."