Yadong Song Wants Top 5 Foes, Claims UFC is ‘Protecting’ Sean O’Malley

Yadong
Song was impressive against Ricky Simon
at
UFC Fight Night 223, but he would have preferred to put his
opponent away earlier than the fifth round.

“I feel my performance was OK,” Song said at the post-fight press
conference. “Not very good. I could’ve ended the fight in the
earlier rounds. It was five rounds. He’s a very tough opponent. I
wanted to be patient in the fight. I had a lot of chances to finish
the fight earlier.”

The Team Alpha Male product has won four of his last five UFC
appearances and has designs on moving up in the rankings. In the
aftermath of his latest triumph, targeted matchups against the
likes of Sean O’Malley, Petr Yan,
Rob
Font and Marlon
Vera.

“I want to fight Top 5 fighters,” Song said. “Even Font – he’s No.
6. He’s OK. ‘Chito’ Vera and Sean O’Malley – but they probably
won’t give me Sean O’Malley. They want to protect him. Whatever.
Just top five. My goal is to fight top-five fighters this
year.”

O’Malley hasn’t competed since taking a controversial split
decision over Yan at UFC 280 in October. While Aljamain
Sterling is slated to defend his bantamweight title against
Henry
Cejudo at UFC 288, O’Malley
recently stated that he has been assured that he will receive
the next championship opportunity.