Sean O’Malley wasn’t all that interested in fighting Merab Dvalishvili up until recently.
The #1 UFC Bantamweight contender Dvalishvili’s been calling for a fight with O’Malley for years, long before the fighters were ever near the top of the division. But, O’Malley never paid too much attention to Dvalishvili, doing his own thing en route to an eventual title shot against then-champ Aljamain Sterling, taking the throne by second-round TKO at UFC 292.
Dvalishvili On Recent Cut Over Eye: ‘This Is Nothing’
This wouldn’t sit well with Sterling’s teammate Dvalishvili who will look to avenge him in the main event of Noche UFC at the Sphere when he takes on “Suga” once and for all. Though, the road to gold wouldn’t come out without some scrapes and bruises, in this case, a cut around the eye of Dvalishvili, suffered during training camp this week.
No matter, Dvalishvili is training as much as he can in the lead-up to the biggest fight of his career vs. O’Malley.
“September 14. I’m coming, Sean O’Malley,” Dvalishvili said in a Instagram video. “You are in big trouble, my friend. Stop talking too much, bro. You know I’m dangerous, and then you know what’s gonna happen. You already know, and I wanna tell all these people everything is good. This is my 3rd training session today. I got a little cut today, but this is part of the training. This is nothing.”
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O’Malley Says Dvalishvili Went From A “Boring” Fighter To An “Interesting” One
For O’Malley, Dvalishvili is someone that’s been on his radar but not so much a potential opponent until he beat Sterling for the bantamweight belt in Boston with Dvalishvili in the corner of his teammate. Dvalishvili’s fought once since then, defeating his third former champ in a row against Henry Cejudo at UFC 298 to reserve his next spot in line for a fight against O’Malley.
“Merab’s been calling me out for a while,” O’Malley said of Dvalishvili in a recent interview with Red Corner MMA. “After all his decision wins, he would call me out, and it just never got any traction. No one ever was like, ‘Yo, you should fight Merab…’ It’s like, you can be so boring for so long, it becomes interesting. You can beat so many people in boring ways that it becomes interesting. That’s what he’s done.
“Decision, decision, decision, decision, decision, decision, decision. Now it’s like, ‘Oh s***, can anybody beat him? And now we get to find out, he’s on 10 fight win streak. So, it became interesting after I knocked out Aljo. I had to get the Chito [Vera] fight out of the way real quick because I knew I’d beat his ass. I just wanted to get a quick title defense out, make a couple extra mils, and just get that out of the way.
“Merab’s next and it’s just perfect timing,” O’Malley added.
“It’s Not Gonna Be An Easy Fight, But I Can Make It Look Easy’
All but one of Dvalishvili’s UFC fights have reached the distance with “The Machine’s” last finish being a comeback TKO over Marlon Moraes in 2021. It’s been straight to the scorecards ever since for Merab Dvalishvili. As for O’Malley, the bantamweight champ went the full five rounds for the first time against Chito Vera in his last outing at UFC 299 and had a few three-rounders, but mostly knockouts on his way to the title.
So, does Sean O’Malley see himself going the distance in what is a tough fight on paper against a durable wrestler in Dvalishvili?
“It’s a possibility, definitely is,” O’Malley said. “Merab’s tough. I’m not questioning how tough he is. I know he’s got heart, he’s where he’s at for a reason. It’s not gonna be an easy fight, but I can make it look easy.
“The Aljo fight wasn’t an easy fight, you could say I made it look easy. The Chito fight wasn’t, even though I won 50-45, it wasn’t an easy fight. I could make Merab look easy, but at the end of the day, he still beat Jose Aldo, beat Henry Cejudo, beat Petr Yan, beat all these killers, so it could be a decision, but if it is, it’s me winning.”
