Chael Sonnen has his ideas on who the UFC’s piece de resistance is right now.

And it’s not Conor McGregor.

In August 2023, at a Q&A ahead of the UFC 292 centerpiece including Aljamain Sterling safeguarding his bantamweight title versus Sean O’Malley, Sonnen applauded O’Malley as having the “It Factor” and called him “a star on the rise.” O’Malley went on to beat Sterling by knockout to end up being UFC champ and a year later on, Sonnen thinks that there has actually formally been an altering of the guard as far as who draws the most eyeballs in mixed martial arts.

“O’Malley is the biggest star in our sport right now,” Sonnen stated on his YouTube channel. “And ‘Red Panty Night’ is still real. Conor’s not in the sport, he’s not even licensed. Conor could not walk in and fight tonight if he wanted to. I’m just sharing with you, who’s in the sport, it’s one of those things. Conor has no more of a claim to this sport right now than [Georges] St-Pierre or Khabib [Nurmagomedov]. In fact, St-Pierre and Khabib have attended more UFCs in the last year than Conor.”

McGregor has actually long been the de facto response regarding who is mixed martial arts’s most well-known fighter and, in all possibility, the next time he enters the cage he will be box workplace gold for the UFC as normal. However, “The Notorious” has actually not completed because suffering a damaged leg at UFC 264 in July 2021, and a held off bout with competitor Michael Chandler stays in limbo.

Sonnen raised subject of O’Malley’s star power in the context of the bantamweight champ needing to handle increased analysis and media duties ahead of his upcoming title defense versus Merab Dvalishvili at UFC 306 on Sept. 14. He questions if O’Malley might possibly be shaken off his video game by Dvalishvili’s unconventional technique to eliminate promo.

“I say that because when you’re O’Malley and you’re out there working double- and triple-time, you’re making sure that you’re in the main event because of things you’re doing outside the octagon,” Sonnen stated. “And whoever gets put in that traveler seat with you, despite they’ve done, that’s not why they’re there. They’re there due to the fact that you’re there. They’re in the centerpiece due to the fact that you drove to the front of the line and there’s an inflammation, and I can’t call it a bitterness, however there is an inflammation when that individual is not supporting their end of the offer, which is every interview I do, you do. I do 5 interviews at 6 a.m., you do 5 interviews at 6 a.m.

“It doesn’t work that way, that’s not how this goes, I’m just sharing for you as you start to get irritable, as the stress starts coming in, as the fight starts getting closer, as you start getting those pounds off, and this starts to get more real, and you start to realize the risk that you have and the distractions that came along because of the pressure and the expectations put on you. Oh, by the way, you’re not even favored to win this match. That guy is. ‘That guy is favored to win this match and that guy appears to be a little bit more buckled down and focused because he’s not having some of these other distractions and he’s not having them because he’s not good at doing them, I am, and they’re asking me first, and I keep on saying yes.’ And it’s one of these things that can bother you.”

Though O’Malley at first opened as a minor underdog to Dvalishvili, a number of sportsbooks now have the match more detailed to a choice ‘em.

What’s shocked Sonnen the most is that O’Malley isn’t being provided more regard specifically after an uneven choice win over Marlon Vera at UFC 299, an outcome that Sonnen calls, “The single best performance of any 135-pounder in history.”

Should O’Malley surpass Dvalishvili, he likely deals with another harmful bantamweight competitor down the roadway in the unbeaten Umar Nurmagomedov. Sonnen questions if O’Malley’s run is fated to end quickly, though he included that “Suga” has actually made a routine out of silencing his skeptics.

“I feel that O’Malley, as the biggest star, who’s the hardest-working guy outside of the cage that division has ever seen, top 5 in the sports history—he might be No. 1—he is a top 5 in history of the hardest working guys outside of the cage,” Sonnen stated. “For him to have landed this spaceship in this position and whoever gets in the traveler seat and now you’re informing me [the oddsmakers] think that he’s two-and-a-half times most likely to lose than he is to win and even if he wins he draws into a guy with a comparable dreadful design?

“That is a lot for a young man to take on, but that seems to be exactly where O’Malley does his best work. That seems to be, when that house is on fire, and he’s right on the edge and people aren’t believing him and he’s got to stay sharp and if he’s not sharp he’s going to fall into a bed of needles, that seems to be where Sean O’Malley performs his finest.”