Sean O’Malley heard rumors of Henry Cejudo potentially having a disastrous camp for his latest fight against Merab Dvalishvili.
Last Saturday, February 17, UFC 298 went down inside the Honda Center, with Ilia Topuria dethroning Alexander Volkanovski of the featherweight title in the main event. Earlier in the night, an intriguing bantamweight matchup took place between Cejudo and Dvalishvili.
Dvalishvili utilized his highly-respected wrestling skills and secured a unanimous decision win, extending his winning streak to ten fights. ‘The Machine’ came in as the betting favorite, but it was surprising to see him cruise to a victory against the Olympic gold medalist.
Sean O’Malley attended UFC 298 for several reasons and joined Ariel Helwani on The MMA Hour to provide his reaction. The bantamweight world champion had this to say when asked if he was surprised about how Dvalishvili vs. Cejudo played out:
“Yeah, [I was surprised] a little bit. I was hearing rumors on the fight day that Henry didn’t have a great camp, Henry hurt his groin, Henry didn’t spar, didn’t train as much as he wanted to. With that being said, you can’t go into a fight not 100% against Merab. Merab is a machine, he has a ten-fight win streak, he’s f*cking good. So, yeah, I wasn’t surprised when I heard that. Henry is getting a little bit older. If he’s done, he’s done.”
Watch O’Malley’s entire recent appearance on The MMA Hour below:
Sean O’Malley explains he attended UFC 298 to “punk out” Marlon ‘Chito’ Vera
Sean O’Malley is currently training for his upcoming UFC 299 main event fight against Marlon ‘Chito’ Vera. Ahead of his first bantamweight title defense on March 9, O’Malley attended UFC 298 for several reasons and explained why during the previously mentioned appearance on The MMA Hour:
“I wanted to punk out Chito [Vera], but he wasn’t there. I don’t know where he was. I thought he was going to be there. I kind of pushed for that Ilia [Topuria fight, thought maybe I could have a run-in with someone. Didn’t see Merab, didn’t see Henry, didn’t see Ilia, Chito didn’t even show up. My aura was too big, my presence was too powerful, intimidated him. I heard he was in California, decided to not go. Maybe got a little scared.”
Sean O’Malley and Marlon ‘Chito’ Vera first fought in Aug. 2022, with the latter securing a first-round TKO win. O’Malley now looks to avenge his lone professional MMA loss in a rematch against Vera, which would extend the five-fight winning streak of ‘Sugar.’
