BKFC champion Kai Stewart wasn’t necessarily looking for a fight against fellow Montana native Sean O’Malley, but now he actually likes that idea.
As he prepares to defend his title on home soil against UFC veteran Jimmie Rivera on Saturday, Stewart addressed his beef with O’Malley, which dates back to UFC 292, the night that the flamboyant Contender Series veteran first captured the bantamweight championship. It was an odd interaction when O’Malley was asked about the rise of combat sports in Montana and when Stewart’s name was mentioned, he responded by saying “that kid sucks … he’s in my DMs talking shit, I don’t even know this kid.”
It turns out the direct message was from four years ago but apparently O’Malley never forgot.
“So the DM in question was from 2020, this was 2023 when he beat [Aljamain Sterling],” Stewart told MMA Fighting. “It’s from 2020, he posted something about wrestlers and one of my really good friends is Myles Mazurkiewicz, if you type that name versus Sean O’Malley on YouTube, you’ll see what happens.
“My only negative DM to him was, ‘What about Myles Mazurkiewicz, the only wrestler you’ve ever faced?’ Apparently that stuck because three years down the road he hit me with that.”
The fight in question came when O’Malley was still an amateur and he suffered a loss to Mazurkiewicz, was a standout wrestler at the University of Providence in Montana. Stewart says that was the only private message he ever sent to O’Malley and that seemingly innocuous interaction led to some ill feelings between them.
In addition to that incident, Stewart revealed he also received an opportunity from O’Malley’s team to face off with one of his training partners with the now-former UFC champion offering up a bonus to make the fight happen. While Stewart does have a pro MMA bout on his résumé, he’s now a reigning and defending BKFC champion and he has no plans to burn the promotion by trying to pursue a grudge match against one of O’Malley’s boys.
“They said, ‘Sean O’Malley will give you $20,000 if you can sign up and fight against our guy and win,’” Stewart said. “I was like obviously I’m not giving up my world title to fight a 1-0 pro fighter in MMA. Absolutely not. It’s just little things like that. They’re just trying real hard to see a downfall in me because I think they’re just scared that I’m coming, especially after that Merab [Dvalishvili] fight.”
Despite the simmering bad blood between them, Stewart says he still openly roots for O’Malley whenever he competes because he always wants to show support to his fellow fighters from Montana.
“I’ve rooted for him every single fight,” Stewart said. “People said Merab was just going to do what he did to O’Malley and I thought it was possible but also I saw how chinny Merab is. If I was going to put my money down on the fight, I would probably put my money on Sean. That’s what I was telling people. Sean is a sniper. Then Merab went out and did that.
“I still supported him through everything because Montana to the moon. But eventually the forces are going to clash and it’s going to be good. If there’s any beef, it’s the Montana way, let’s just take care of it.”
It might seem impossible to imagine a fight between Stewart and O’Malley considering they don’t compete in the same promotion much less the same sport. That said, Stewart knows new BKFC owner Conor McGregor has already pitched the idea of doing crossover fights with the UFC and he doesn’t rule out the possibility that a showdown against O’Malley could actually happen one day.
“Conor posted recently about doing crossovers with Dana [White], Conor is still super marketed through the UFC, he’s in every commercial that they have so that holds weight,” Stewart said. “I definitely slid up and hopefully we can get that fight set up one day no matter where we do it.
“I’m leaving the door open. I’m in the position where I’m willing to go to 135. I’m willing to go to MMA. I’m willing to do it in bare-knuckle. I’m willing to do it at 145. I’m willing to do it at a catchweight. The ball is entirely and literally in O’Malley’s court. That’s what I wanted. As long as I remain king of BKFC, it’s way more likely we can get a fatter payday over here than we could over there.”
Stewart maintains he really doesn’t have anything against O’Malley but he also loves the idea of two top fighters from Montana squaring off to settle whatever beef exists between them.
“If there’s any beef, it’s the Montana way, let’s just take care of it,” Stewart said. “I will fight O’Malley in MMA, bare knuckle, we can do whatever he wants. I’m going to take it home.”
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