But fast forward a bit and O'Malley, the defending UFC bantamweight world champion, is riding a three-fight win streak. McGregor has lost three of his last four fights, having last fought way back in July 2021. In a sitdown interview with ESPN MMA’s Brett Okamoto recently, O'Malley detailed his dynamic with McGregor and blasted the former double champ for being "bitter" and "jealous" these days.

"I thought it was good for a while," O'Malley began detailing about his dynamic with McGregor as he ascended up the UFC rankings. "I would do something good and he would kind of say 'yeah, I look good,' something like that. He never wanted to give me that praise almost because you go back all my interviews like 'I want to be like Conor, I want to do what Conor did, I want to do what Conor did.'

"Now, I'm 29, defended the belt — something he's never done by the way — and I just feel pure jealousy from it. It's really weird because times change," he continued.

O'Malley added: "He's a little bit older now, he's on a [two]-fight losing streak, he just pulled out because of his toe — which is just not Conor-like. I feel a lot of jealousy from Conor McGregor, to be honest, which sucks." 

O'Malley, who defends his bantamweight title against Merab Dvalishvili at UFC 306 on September 14, vows that if he experiences a career skid like McGregor is now that he'll never respond as "Notorious" has.

"I hope I don't get bitter like that," O'Malley said bluntly. "I hope once my career starts maybe doing what he is doing — well, I hope my career never does that — I hope once I'm a little bit older and see someone else coming up, that I'm excited for them, happy for them, almost maybe a mentor towards them. Rather than just jealous and bitter because they have spotlight and I don't."

Even if McGregor does eventually make good on fighting Michael Chandler, O'Malley thinks the damage to the Irish superstar's Hall of Fame career has been done.

"Like Conor could still come back and fight Chandler and do big numbers, but it's like how many more losses?" he piled on. "It's almost impressive how many losses he can do to keep coming back and get people's attention."

As a parting shot to McGregor, O'Malley offered to hand him another loss if the two were to ever get into the Octagon together.

"Speaking of big fights, that's a fight I wouldn't mind," he said about clashing with McGregor. "I really don't call out big guys at 155, 170 because I know my role. I'm a 135er, but for me to be able to actually think I can beat Conor where he's at right now, I'm just being honest. I'm just saying the truth, I believe I can beat Conor McGregor. When your idols turn to rivals is a real thing.

"Right now, I'm not a huge fan of Conor."

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