Ryan Garcia wants to meet Sean O'Malley on the UFC champion's home turf. O'Malley has repeatedly teased a crossover boxing fight against Garcia or Gervonta 'Tank' Davis, but Garcia wants to save O'Malley the trip.
The former WBC interim lightweight champion revealed this week that he reached out to UFC president Dana White for a fight against UFC bantamweight champion O'Malley.
"I've already sent text messages to Dana," Garcia told "The MMA Hour" on Monday. "I've already got people that are connected to Dana to ask him, let's do this. I'll come to UFC, pay me a bag, I'm there. I'm down to do it after Devin Haney."
Garcia, who is scheduled to challenge Devin Haney for the WBC super lightweight title on April 20, rejected the idea of boxing O'Malley. Garcia pointed to how other UFC stars like Conor McGregor and Francis Ngannou fell short in such efforts.
"That's already been done," Garcia said. "I know I'm going to knock him out in boxing, that's not even fair. What is fair is to test myself in MMA because I know if I put my mind to it and I trained every day, and I had Nate [Diaz] helping me, even Alex Pereira, all of them, and I really locked in, he will not beat me.
"I'll beat his ass in MMA guaranteed. I'm a natural, you don't understand. I'm a natural wrestler. I just beat my security that's a wrestler, I beat him. I'm strong and I've got crazy conditioning. ... I will come with everything I have and I will destroy Sean O'Malley. In the UFC."
Garcia bragged that he could prepare for O'Malley with only several months of MMA training.
"Just give me three or four months of just MMA training," Garcia said. "I'll go beat his ass.
"I told Nate to train me a little bit. I would even ask Conor to let me train with him for a little bit. Every month would be a new coach: Conor, Alex Pereira, Nate, and just somebody else. That would be sick."
O'Malley soon responded to O'Malley. The UFC champion said Garcia was out of his mind if he believed an MMA fight between the two would at all be competitive.
"Buddy. Brother. I would kill you within minutes," O'Malley said on his TimboSugarShow podcast. "It's just not even realistic.
"It's crazy how stupid and delusional that is. I wonder if people think that when I call out boxers though. Is that the same kind of thing? I mean, it is a little bit crazy when I call out boxers. A little bit. Not a ton. Not a 100% crazy. A little bit. But when he boxers say they want to fight in MMA, 100% crazy."
O'Malley encouraged Garcia to waste his time training grappling. O'Malley, who will headline UFC 299 against Marlon Vera on March 9, said he could put Garcia away purely with strikes.
"I don't need to take him down -- I mean, I could take him down and choke him, but it's like, I would kick him in the f---ing body. I would kick his little sticks," O'Malley said. "Whatever the f--- I wanted to him," O'Malley said. "I could box him with MMA gloves. It's a different sport just with those little MMA gloves. The distance is different.
"It was cute. I could beat him and Devin Haney in the same night back-to-back in a fight. It's just not competitive. Pure delusion. Good f---ing boxer, a high-level boxer, but beaten by Gervonta Davis. That has nothing to do with it but I thought I'd throw that out there."
