Sean O’Malley mocks Aiemann Zahabi callout at UFC Vancouver, Zahabi responds

Sean O’Malley heard Aiemann Zahabi say his name. Is there a chance the dominoes are falling for a matchup to be made?

Zahabi defeated Marlon Vera at UFC Vancouver to record his seventh straight win and then used his post-fight microphone time to call out the former bantamweight champion. O’Malley was quick to post a clip with his response on social media:

In the brief response, O’Malley is shown watching Zahabi’s post-fight interview and reacting with a look of bewilderment. It’s unclear whether this means O’Malley is intrigued by the potential matchup or if he thinks Zahabi is gunning for an opportunity he’s unlikely to get.

During a media scrum backstage at Rogers Arena, Zahabi was shown O’Malley’s response and he took the clip in stride.

“That’s good,” Zahabi said. “It seems like we’re setting it up. If he didn’t want it, he wouldn’t have made a video.”

Zahabi is currently knocking on the door of a title shot, with recent wins over veterans Vera, Jose Aldo, and Pedro Munhoz bolstering his case. Since a slow 1-2 start to his UFC career, Zahabi hasn’t looked back, and his seven-fight win streak only trails Mario Bautista (8) and division champion Merab Dvalishvili (13) among UFC bantamweights.

Should his bout with O’Malley materialize, Zahabi expects his good fortune to continue.

“I’m confident in any matchup,” Zahabi said. “I’m in the top 10 now. If I’m not willing to fight anybody in the top 10, what am I doing here? I want to fight them all and [O’Malley] is No. 1. I feel like the way things are going with Merab, he’s clearing out the division and no sound negative, Sean O’Malley’s a great fighter and all that, but he fought Merab twice. So I don’t think he’s up next for the belt. There’s going to be maybe Umar [Nurmagomedov] or Bautista, [Petr] Yan, there’s some guys who are going to get the title fight before Sean O’Malley because he lost to Merab two times and I don’t mean that in a disrespectful way.

“So I feel like I have the opportunity to fight somebody like No. 1, so I want to take it.”