Mario Bautista, who has been training alongside current UFC bantamweight champion Sean O’Malley for the past decade, is aiming to become a UFC champion himself and is on a five-fight win streak with a chance to join the top 15 rankings with his upcoming fight against Ricky Simon at UFC Vegas 84.
Mario Bautista has his eyes on the UFC championship. He’s been training with bantamweight champ Sean O’Malley for a decade, so he knows what it takes.
Once, they were just newcomers in Arizona. Their dream? To compete in the UFC. Now, O’Malley is the best bantamweight in the sport. Bautista? He’s on a five-fight win streak. He’s got a shot at the top 15 rankings with his upcoming fight against Ricky Simon at UFC Vegas 84.
Bautista and O’Malley, they go way back. “We showed up at the gym 10 years ago, a month right after each other,” Bautista shared with MMA Fighting. They were amateurs then, getting beat up together, growing into their own.
Seeing O’Malley get that belt? “Super awesome,” says Bautista. “I was happy for him.”
Despite O’Malley’s rise to fame, he’s stayed loyal to his people. Bautista knows this. Even though they’re not training together for his upcoming fight, Bautista’s sure O’Malley would help if he asked.
Bautista’s seen O’Malley’s generosity firsthand. “Let’s say I was going to fight Cory Sandhagen and I called Sean and said I need your help, he would be there 100 percent of the time,” Bautista said. “I’ve been there his whole career giving him rounds, being a sparring partner for him. I know he would return the favor.”
In his next fight, O’Malley’s looking to avenge his only UFC loss. He’s up against Marlon “Chito” Vera in a rematch at UFC 299 in March. Bautista’s rooting for his friend and teammate, of course. He’s confident O’Malley will get the job done.
“I think Sean gets the win for sure,” Bautista said. “‘Chito,’ he looked good in his last fight against Pedro [Munhoz] but Pedro’s getting a little bit older. It wasn’t super impressive.”
He’s excited for O’Malley. “It’s like that thing they say, once you get the belt you get 30 percent better. In his last fight, he was injured. For him to pull that out and get the ‘W,’ I can only imagine what he’s going to do with a full healthy camp and already being champ. I think Sean’s going to get the ‘W.’”
Bautista’s got his own fight on Saturday. A chance to earn a spot in the rankings. It’s the next step towards his goal of fighting for a UFC title.
He’s trained with the best, including O’Malley. He knows he can go toe-to-toe with them. But if he’s up for the title and O’Malley’s still champ, that could be a problem. Not something he’s thought about yet, though.
“It’s something we haven’t really talked about,” Bautista said. “I feel weird even talking about it, not being in that position yet. But if we do get in that position, I do want the belt and we’ll have to figure something out for sure.”