Sean O'Malley says he turned down Ramzan Kadyrov invite to Chechnya: ‘The guy is a murderer’

UFC bantamweight star Sean O’Malley has said that he turned down an invite from Chechen dictator Ramzan Kadyrov to visit Chechnya.

Three former UFC champions — Kamaru Usman, Henry Cejudo, and Justin Gaethje — came under fire in November for accepting Chechen dictator Ramzan Kadryov’s offer to travel to Chechnya and attend one of the warlord’s adolescent sons’ birthday celebrations. O’Malley also claims that he had a similar offer but passed it up.

Sean O'Malley in his fight against Chris Moutinho — Sean O’Malley in his fight against Chris Moutinho (Gary Vasquez: USA Today Sports)

“The reason we never really ended up going [to Chechnya] is because we were saying like, who is this for? And then we didn’t really get an answer,” O’Malley said in a recent video on his YouTube channel (h/t Bloody Elbow). “So, I’m like, ‘F*** that!’ Imran [Jawaid, one of O’Malley’s business advisors], you know, I listen to Imran’s advice and Imran was like, ‘Hey, I don’t have a good feeling about this. Let’s not move forward with that.’”

Also Read: Chechen Republic head Ramzan Kadyrov offers to train Elon Musk to prepare for Putin fight

Sean O’Malley is proud of rejecting Ramzan Kadyrov’s invitation

Sean O’Malley‘s decision to reject travelling to Chechnya was absolutely the right one. For “severe human rights abuses,” the U.S. Department of the Treasury imposed sanctions on Kadyrov in 2020. Many of Kadyrov’s enterprises, including his MMA gym, are now off-limits to anybody conducting business in the US, but this hasn’t stopped numerous well-known MMA athletes from maintaining their relationships with him. O’Malley is happy that he is not one of them.

“They went over to Chechnya,” O’Malley said, referring to Usman, Cejudo, and Gaethje. “And the guy [Kadyrov] is a murderer, basically. The top dog. Like, best friends with [Vladimir] Putin. He’s not a good person, and that’s who they went there, to his kid’s birthday party. And, that’s where I got invited to go. And, yeah, I’ve heard that they’re getting some backlash for going.”

What do you guys think about Sean O’Malley rejecting Ramzan Kadyrov’s invitation of not going to Chechnya? Let us know in the comment section below.