‘Square up!’ Cody Garbrandt, Sean O’Malley restrained during UFC 269 presser (Video)

UFC 269’s pre-fight press conference went down earlier tonight (Thurs., Dec. 9, 2021) in Las Vegas, Nevada, to promote this weekend’s (Sat., Dec. 11) pay-per-view (PPV) event in “Sin City.” As usual, all of the pay-per-view (PPV) main card fighters participated in the the customary staredown festivities, including Lightweight kingpin, Charles Oliveira, mean-mugging Dustin Poirier and Amanda Nunes eying Julianna Pena ahead of their co-headlining Bantamweight title fight (see them here).

But, the staredowns got started a bit earlier than usual, and it included two fighters who aren’t going to be fighting each other Saturday night.

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MASSIVE MIDDLEWEIGHT MATCH! Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) makes its highly anticipated return to Sydney, Australia, for the first time in five years on Sat., Sept. 9, 2023, with a 185-pound world title fight inside Qudos Bank Arena. In the ESPN+-streamed pay-per-view (PPV) main event, Middleweight roost-ruler, Israel Adesanya, plans to silence No. 5-seeded contender, Sean Strickland. In UFC 293’s hard-hitting Heavyweight co-main event, No-6-ranked fan favorite, Tai Tuivasa, locks horns with towering Russian, Alexander Volkov (No. 8).

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Cody Garbrandt — who faces Kai Kara France in his Flyweight debut — got into a war of words with Sean O’Malley — who faces Raulian Paiva — and things almost got physical between the two. “Suga” asked UFC President, Dana White, if the two could square up for future reference, and it didn’t take long for “No Love” to get up out of his seat and make his way over to O’Malley.

Thankfully, security got in between the two men to prevent another one of these incidents.

Garbrandt and O’Malley have been going at each other for quite some time now, with both men calling for a fight that never saw the light of day. Now that “No Love” is down at 125 pounds, a fight between the two doesn’t seem likely since O’Malley is still competing at 135 pounds.

But, the heat between the pair isn’t going to die down anytime soon, so depending on what happens in their respective bouts in “Sin City,” UFC might want to go ahead and please both combatants (as well as fans) and book them to fight one another sometime in 2022.

Remember that MMAmania.com will deliver LIVE round-by-round, blow-by-blow coverage of the entire UFC 269 fight card right here, starting with the early ESPN+ “Prelims” matches online, which are scheduled to begin at 6 p.m. ET, then the remaining undercard balance on ESPN/ESPN+ at 8 p.m. ET, before the PPV main card start time at 10 p.m. ET on ESPN+ PPV.

To check out the latest and greatest UFC 269: “Oliveira vs. Poirier” news and notes be sure to hit up our comprehensive event archive right here.