James Gallagher: Sean O’Malley Declined SUG Grappling Match

Photo by Patrick Sheehan / SevereMMA.com

Bellator star James Gallagher has claimed that UFC bantamweight Sean O’Malley has turned down a grappling match with the SBG Ireland fighter.

Chael Sonnen issued a challenge via Instagram to find an opponent for “Suga” for the Submission Underground 19 event on December 20th.

“I have a deal with Sean. I will bring him out, walk him out there, and raise his hand by forfeit if nobody’s got the balls to take him on. I’ve told him I’m going to write him a big fat cheque on December 20th, and I am! So any of you guys that are out there chirping…if you’ve got a contract with Bellator or UFC, and you want to try to fight a guy, and I’m going to take his best skills away, I need to hear from you!” Sonnen proclaimed.

Despite a long-standing history of Bellator and UFC fighters calling each other out to compete inside the cage, the reality is that these types of cross-over MMA fights are unlikely to ever happen. Grappling events such as Submission Underground offer athletes from rival promotions the opportunity to compete, albeit under a limited grappling ruleset.

However, Gallagher took to his own Instagram story, claiming that he agreed to a deal for the matchup, but taking aim at O’Malley for not reciprocating:

“I agreed to a deal we made with Chael after I saw this video, and he turned it down.” Gallagher clarified to SevereMMA.

“I seen [sic] the video of Chael Sonnen calling ‘anyone’ out to fight Sean O’Malley in a grappling match. So, then I went to my team, they went to Chael, we made a deal, and now all of a sudden now he (O’Malley) doesn’t want to compete on the show.” Gallagher further explained to SevereMMA.

Sean O’Malley has yet to respond to the claims.