9 hours Ago By Christopher De Santiago, Bloody Elbow
Sean O’Malley is leaving no stone unturned ahead of his rematch against Merab Dvalishvili. The former UFC Bantamweight Champion lost the title at the Sphere last year, on the wrong end of a wrestling clinic against Merab Dvalishvili . Dvalishvili took down Sean O’Malley six times across five rounds to win by unanimous decision.
Despite fans not wanting to see the rematch , the world’s best bantamweights meet again in the main event of UFC 316 on June 7th in Newark, New Jersey. Circling back to their first fight, O’Malley did defend the majority of Dvalishvili’s takedown attempts but the striker was simply outworked and outgunned in the grappling department. Following the title loss, O’Malley revealed he wasn’t anything close to 100% at UFC 306, citing a torn labrum injury 10 weeks prior to the fight taking place.
Sean O’Malley grappled more on Monday morning than he did for Merab Dvalishvili at UFC 306 An injured O’Malley says he was hardly able to grapple in the preparations for Merab Dvalishvili, a fighter notoriously known for weaponizing his wrestling and cardio. “This sounds like I’m exaggerating, and I’m not,” O’Malley continued on The Ariel Helwani Show. “Just today, this morning practice that I had, I grappled more today than I grappled last fight camp for Merab.
I know it sounds like [crazy].” “We did 7 six-minute rounds today, grappling hard, picking the hardest guys, just straight grappling today. “I wasn’t able to do that once last camp,” O’Malley revealed.
Sean O’Malley brutally honest on UFC title loss, next fight Getting more work done on a Monday morning than he did in 10 weeks of training, a healthy, ‘cold turkey’ mentality Sean O’Malley is supremely confident in his skills to take Merab Dvalishvili in the rematch. In what others see as a stylistic nightmare for the striking sniper, O’Malley sees a way to win, thinking his ground game is criminally underrated. But to be fair, it’s not like his last performance did ‘Suga’ any favors.
“I know I could wrestle better than I shown in that last fight,” O’Malley said. “That was borderline embarrassing what I was able to do against Merab. “Merab’s tough.
Merab’s good,” O’Malley added. “Merab’s probably considered the greatest bantamweight of all time as of right now. “So, I’m gonna go out there, knock him out.
.. what does that make me?” This article first appeared on Bloody Elbow and was syndicated with permission.
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