When the name ‘Conor McGregor’ is attached to a fight card, you can bet people are going to be paying a little more attention.
At UFC 264, McGregor will take on Dustin Poirier.
And while both McGregor and Poirier are household names, the event presents a perfect opportunity for someone else to move into that next level.
Gilbert Burns and Stephen Thompson are former title contenders in the welterweight division who will square off in the co-main event.
Greg Hardy brings with him a following from an NFL career.
On the prelims, Carlos Condit is set for action along with Jessica Eye and Jennifer Maia.
The name that people will be tuning in to see if he can live up to the hype is Sean O’Malley.
O’Malley meets Kris Moutinho, as his originally opponent, Louis Smolka, was forced out.
For O’Malley, this is a critical fight in his young career.
Back in August, the 26-year-old lost to Marlon Vera, suffering an injury and his first loss in 13 fights at that point. He returned in March and earned a third round knockout of Thomas Almeida, scoring a “Performance of the Night” bonus for the third time.
Since joining the UFC out of Dana White’s Contender Series in 2017, O’Malley has scored four bonuses and put together a 5-1 record.
He has that ‘it’ factor that White and UFC executives love to see.
But if he can’t make a statement in the opening match of the pay-per-view against a newcomer to the Octagon, we might have to start looking elsewhere for the next Conor McGregor.