UFC finally, officially, announces Sean O’Malley will be fighting at UFC 264 on July 10th, against Louis Smolka

Though O’Malley has been telling fans this fight was coming for weeks, there had been no official announcement from the UFC.

Now, with just about five weeks to the fight, they’ve confirmed the bout.

UFC 264 will be the UFC’s first full capacity crowd in Las Vegas since the pandemic began.

O’Malley (13-1), is coming off a bounce back KO of Thomas Almeida. Though currently not in the UFC bantamweight rankings, he has quickly become a fan favorite, amassing over 1.5 million followers on Instagram.

Smolka (17-7), is not necessarily the step up in completion fans were expecting for O’Malley. Names like Dominick Cruz had been floated along with other top ten bantamweights.

Rob Font said after his last win over Cody Garbrandt that he would fight O’Malley before other top tens such as Cruz.

If O’Malley can get through Smolka it seems almost undeniable his next opponent will be in the top ten.