It’s a smart career move on his part. Good chance this is the peak of his MMA career. He’s unlikely to get past Merab or Umar. At that point, he’d no longer be champ and his stock will have dropped.
He goes for it now, there’s a big payday with all the current hype.
Of course, it’ll suck to stall out the division while all that is going on.
Merab or any Dagi wrestlefucks him to death. Suga knows this which is why he wants to move weight classes and fight Ilia Topuria or move to boxing.
Thing is, literally nobody wants these fights that Sean is talking about. Even Ilia told him to shut his hole and fight Merab.
Dana is tired of the Boxing v mma crossover fights and will never let another active UFC champ do it. Also Said its crazy to have new champs immediately want to be double champs or fight zero contenders. So sean gotta fight Merab after UFC gave him a chito because he wanted it