Sean O’Malley will be a very interested viewer of the recently announced Merab Dvalishvili vs. Cory Sandhagen title fight.
The former UFC champion did his best to regain his belt just last month at UFC 316 in his rematch with “The Machine.” Despite reportedly changing his lifestyle and doing everything possible to earn revenge, the bout went even worse! “Suga” connected on very few significant shots and wound up finished this time around, forced to submit to a third-round guillotine choke.
Despite the negative result, O’Malley still believes in himself. He thinks he can win a potential third fight sometime in the future, and he points to Max Holloway’s recent revenge on Dustin Poirier after two previous bouts as motivation.
“I truly believed I was going to go out there and make Merab look stupid,” O’Malley explained on his YouTube channel (via MMA Fighting). “I’m so delusional that I still believe I can do that. Max Holloway beat Dustin [Poirier] in their third fight. Lost the first two. So never say never.”
As for the upcoming Bantamweight title fight, “Suga” feels that the match up feels like “a f—king coin flip” but ultimately leans slightly towards Dvalishvili and his surprising strength.
“When it comes down to overall who’s the more skilled fighter, top to bottom, I think Cory is,” O’Malley continued. “But sometimes that doesn’t matter when you have a guy like Merab who will shoot and change levels and throw stuff. It looks sloppy. When I was watching film on him, you look at it and it looks sloppy. You’re like OK, I can catch him here, catch him here. He surprised me twice. I wasn’t able to crack him, wasn’t able to catch him. I do think he’ll surprise Cory a little bit but I also wouldn’t be surprised if Cory surprises Merab on his wrestling defense and his scramble ability and just fight IQ in general.
“As of right now, Merab Dvalishvili is the No. 1 Bantamweight of all time. It’s exciting for him to stay active like he wanted to.”
At the moment, Sean O’Malley remains unbooked. He’ll have to do more to earn a third fight with Dvalishvili, but “Suga” remains one of the division’s most popular fighters. If he wins a couple bouts and “The Machine” remains champion, a rubber match is not impossible.
Ask Izzy.
