Cory Sandhagen is aiming for a fight against former champion Sean O'Malley, but also wonders why his name isn't mentioned with Petr Yan.

Sandhagen (18-6 MMA, 11-5 UFC) is currently ranked No. 5 in the latest USA TODAY Sports/MMA Junkie bantamweight rankings. The names ahead of him, from No. 4 to No. 1, include Umar Nurmagomedov, O'Malley, Merab Dvalishvili, and the current UFC champion, Yan. O'Malley is the only one in the top 5 that Sandhagen has not faced yet, which seems like easy matchmaking for the promotion.

"O'Malley is definitely the guy that there is to fight," Sandhagen said on an ONX Sports podcast. "Everyone's talking about that fight. There's really, I mean, there's no reason not to do it. I'm coming off of a really close fight with Merab, where it was a super competitive fight. Still lost, but it was a very competitive fight. He's coming off of getting finished by Merab – got finished once, but lost to him twice. That's the fight that everyone's calling for."

At UFC 320, Sandhagen lost a unanimous decision to then-champion Dvalishvili, who went on to lose the title in a rematch against Yan. Sandhagen faced Yan at UFC 267, losing a unanimous decision in the Fight of the Night. Since there is uncertainty about who Yan's next opponent could end up being, Sandhagen can't help but wonder why his name isn't being brought up, considering their first fight was an entertaining bout.

"I try not to be a hater and a jealous person or whatever, but I'm like, 'Yo, why are we not talking about me and Yan fighting again when me and Yan had a killer fight?'" Sandhagen said. "It was a Performance of the Night, it was five rounds. We had a killer fight. Sean got finished by Merab, and then after that, barely beat Song (Yadong), and I finished Song, you know what I mean? I broke his orbital and cut his eye. I put Song in surgery the next time, you know what I mean? It's like, give me a little bit of freaking credit, goddamnit – but I can't let that stuff enter into my head or else I'll just be a jaded, jealous mean person all the time."

The most likely outcome is that Sandhagen does end up fighting O'Malley next. If that comes to fruition, Sandhagen would love for it to take place on the White House card this summer, given the attention the event will generate.

"Hell yeah, and I think Sean would bite at that too," Sandhagen said. "Because who wouldn't want to fight? That fight is gonna get so many views. Like the last one at Paramount+ got like 7 million viewers or whatever. Imagine what the White House card is gonna get. People are gonna tune in from other sports just because it's a once-in-a-lifetime event. I bet you it'll be around 14, 15 million people watching."

This article originally appeared on MMA Junkie: Cory Sandhagen: Why are we not talking about Petr Yan rematch?