UFC 324 live blog: Sean O’Malley vs. Song Yadong

This is the UFC 324 live blog for Sean O’Malley vs. Song Yadong, the bantamweight co-main event Saturday at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.

The former champion O’Malley stands at No. 5 at 135 pounds in the MMA Fighting Global Rankings, with Song a few spots behind at No. 8.

O’Malley (18-3, 1 NC) could be one impressive performance away from another title shot despite being on a two-fight skid. Those losses came in consecutive championship fights against Merab Dvalishvili, but with Petr Yan having dethroned Dvalishvili at UFC 323 and O’Malley holding a previous win over Yan, the calculus could favor “Suga” when it comes time to book Yan’s next challenger if O’Malley is victorious.

He faces a tough test in Song (22-7-1, 2 NC) a longtime contender looking to finally break through into the upper echelon of the bantamweight division. This past February, Song headlined UFC Seattle where he scored a decision win over all-time great Henry Cejudo. That’s six wins in Song’s past eight outings now, and he’s poised to play the spoiler on Saturday.

Check out the UFC 324 live blog for Sean O’Malley vs. Song Yadong below.

Preamble

With Umar Nurmagomedov having a kind of forgettable win earlier, Sean O’Malley is in even better position to potentially earn a title shot here. Let’s see what Song Yadong has to say about it, though.