Sean O'Malley believes he's close to achieving his goal of becoming bigger than Conor McGregor.

O'Malley became the new bantamweight champion following an impressive second-round TKO win over Aljamain Sterling in the UFC 292 headliner this past weekend.

For many, it was meant to be as O'Malley seemed destined for UFC glory and looked to be on the same trajectory as McGregor. In fact, his finish over Sterling was even reminiscent of McGregor's over Jose Aldo when he became featherweight champion back in 2015.

“I remember sitting there vividly doing an interview telling people I will be bigger than Conor McGregor,” O’Malley said on ESPN’s First Take (via MMA Junkie). “I got a lot of crap for it. There was definitely a lot of hate online saying, like, ‘Come on, man, that’s not realistic.’ But in my mind it was.

“I just knew I had to do the things that I’ve been doing, which is knocking people out, putting on beautiful performances, and I would get there.”

However, O'Malley believes he hasn't reached McGregor level status just yet. In order to do that, he feels he needs just one more knockout win as a champion.

“We’re not quite there yet, but one more knockout, and I think it puts me over the top,” O’Malley added.

Perhaps it could be against his rival in Marlon Vera who was notably the first and only fighter to defeat him in his professional career?

That said, there are other ways O'Malley could reach the Irishman's level and that includes emulating him by not only becoming a two-weight champion, but also venturing into the world of boxing.

“I think there’s a couple ways of (reaching McGregor status),” O’Malley explained. “Defending the belt obviously is one way. Putting a beautiful knockout on for my first title defense would do that.

“Moving up a weight class, but I’m not trying to fight (featherweight champ) Alexander Volkanovski. Hopefully he’s fighting Ilia Topuria. If Ilia goes out there and beats Volk, I would love to move up to 145 and fight Ilia. If Gervonta Davis – you know he’s (5-foot-3), that’s a fight that interests me.”

All things considered, it's still a bold claim given the popularity of McGregor who is not only the biggest superstar in MMA history, but also one of the most recognized sportsmen in the entire world. O'Malley is definitely on the right path, though.

The comparison with McGregor is one that former UFC two-weight champion Daniel Cormier also agrees with.

“He is – no bulls**t – he is almost the second coming of McGregor,” Cormier said on his YouTube channel. “And when I say the second coming of McGregor, that’s a really good thing. He should not fight those comparisons. As he said on the interview, Conor’s rich, Conor does great business, Conor does this. Sean O’Malley can do all those same things.

“He proved (Saturday) that he also has the fighting ability to not only win a championship, but possibly reign atop this division for a long time because the man he beat tonight was a guy that has the most (bantamweight) title defenses in the history of the (UFC).”