Cory Sandhagen discloses what stopped him from calling out Sean O'Malley at UFC San Antonio (Exclusive)

Cory Sandhagen has revealed the reason for not calling out Sean O'Malley after his last UFC victory.

In a recent exclusive interview with James Lynch for Sportskeeda MMA, 'The Sandman' discussed various topics, including his thoughts on Alexander Volkanovski vs. Islam Makhachev and the possibility of fighting Merab Dvalishvili, whom he called out after his last fight.

When asked why he did not call out Sean O'Malley as opposed to Merab, Sandhagen stated that he believed 'The Machine' to be a tougher challenge than 'Suga'.

"That's when it just comes down to the value thing... O'Malley is a good fighter but he's not as tough of a challenge as Merab. Am I gonna call out a guy that I know is not that tough of a challenge because everyone makes him out to be a very famous, popular guy? I don't really care about the fame and popularity too much. I'm gonna operate on the value system that I have which is, ask for the toughest challenge and that's Merab. It's not O'Malley. So, you know, that's hopefully who I get next."

Check out Sandhagen's comments from the 7:44 mark below:

Cory Sandhagen recently competed against Marlon Vera on March 25 at the AT&T Center in San Antonio, Texas. 'The Sandman' got the better of Vera for the majority of the fight and scored a split-decision victory in the end.

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Sean O'Malley shares his thoughts on possibly being the backup fighter for Aljamain Sterling vs. Henry Cejudo

UFC's rising star Sean O'Malley is not fond of the idea of being a backup fighter for the upcoming title fight between Aljamain Sterling and Henry Cejudo at UFC 288.

In a recent episode of his podcast, TimboSugarShow, O'Malley revealed he would be unable to train to the best of his abilities when there's a good chance that he would not even get to compete:

"I was really planning on being backup for Henry-Aljo. Now we're at the point where going and doing a camp, five fives. Planning on a fight is hard enough to do knowing you have a fight, but knowing you're probably not going to fight, I can't train the same way, and I don't feel like I'm in a position where I'm like, 'Well, it's my only opportunity, I need to be a backup... They're five weeks out to the fight, if I got the call I'd be like, 'I'm not ready to do five f**king fives'. ... So I'm pulling out from backup fighter. I never officially was, but breaking news."

Check out Sean O'Malley's full comments about UFC 288 below (starting at the 58:29 mark):