James Gallagher has announced to the world that he believes Sean O’Malley has backed out of grappling match that was in the works for a future Submission Underground event. The pair are both far more known for their respective blossoming MMA careers than they are for professional grappling, but O’Malley was recently seen competing at a Grappling Industries event alongside Danaher Death Squad brown belt, Robert Degle. Gallagher on the other hand hasn’t had a taste of elite grappling just yet, but his groundgame has been on display in his MMA career far more than his potential opponent, most recently seen racking up his ninth submission finish in eleven fights at Bellator Milan.
It all started when Chael Sonnen issued the following open challenge on behalf of O’Malley:
“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!”
However, Gallagher explained in a comment to Severe MMA that he had already taken up this offer and O’Malley had refused to compete against him:
“I agreed to a deal we made with Chael after I saw this video, and he turned it down. I seen 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 doesn’t want to compete on the show.”
At the same time, James Gallagher has also been making cryptic tweets that are pretty clearly aimed at Sean O’Malley potentially in an attempt to goad the UFC Bantamweight into accepting the grappling match at the next Submission Underground event.
Sugga melts once it feels the heat. https://t.co/yaaWgTnoEY
— james gallagher (@StrabanimalMMA) October 27, 2020
