At UFC 306, Merab Dvalishvili secured a unanimous decision victory over Sean O’Malley, taking home the bantamweight title. The iconic night at the Sphere left no excuses, as stated by O’Malley right after the fight. But he soon shifted his stance. ‘Suga’ contended that he deserved to win three rounds and asserted himself as the reigning bantamweight champion.
In response, Dvalishvili fired back at O’Malley with a video mocking the former champion as his “son.” This has clearly not sat well with the former champ, as he yet again has responded to the Georgian fighter. On Monday, O’Malley posted another video on his social media, poking fun at Dvalishvili and their fight. ‘Suga’ demonstrated lightly kneeing a heavy bag to indicate he learned his lesson from UFC 306 failure.
What’s up guys. I’ve got surgery on Oct. 3, doesn’t mean I’m not going to continue to improve and take away things I learned from my last fight and start implementing now.
Sean O’Malley via Instagram
At no point did Suga showcase excellent takedown defense or scramble on the ground. Stuffing takedowns and scrambling are essential skills in competing against a high-level grappler. Dvalishvili landed six takedowns out of 15 attempts, as he had over 10 minutes of control time in the fight.
The Georgian also threw 165 significant strikes, landing 82 on Sean O’Malley. On the standup, Suga threw less than half the significant strikes of his counterpart. Dvalishvili broke many records with his win. His 11-fight win streak in the UFC remains the most in the bantamweight division.
Despite his underperforming night at Noche UFC, Suga believes he is still the champ. This is similar to how O’Malley acted after he lost to Marlon ‘Chito’ Vera in 2020. At the time, he refused to accept the loss. Most of the MMA world refutes his opinion on the fight, with UFC CEO Dana White not siding with O’Malley.
Dana White does not think Sean O’Malley won at UFC 306
Sean O’Malley claimed to achieve a first-round knockout against Merab Dvalishvili. He holds six knockout victories in the UFC. To spice up the rivalry and hype, Suga brutally mocked Dvalishvili’s physical appearance. If things went according to plan, O’Malley wanted a boxing bout against superstar Gervonta Davis. He felt six months could help him defeat Davis in the ring.
Dana White calls out Sean O’Malley for a ‘flat’ UFC 306 performance. (via Imago)Nothing went according to plan at UFC 306 for Sean O’Malley. Since then, he has claimed to have won the fight based on damage in the first and third rounds.
The fifth round was clearly in favor of O’Malley as he hurt Dvalishvili badly in the stomach section. However, Dana White didn’t think so.
He looked flat. He didn’t look sharp. He didn’t look crisp until the last round. He hurt him with that body shot and he knew he hurt him with the body shot. But I looked at the punch stats, it was like six in a couple of the rounds.
Dana White via UFC 306 Post-Fight Presser
Currently, the UFC will book a title bout between Dvalishvili and Umar Nurmagomedov. The bantamweight division will move on without O’Malley. He will get surgery next month and can only return next year. Henry Cejudo and Cory Sandhagen are possible contenders who could face Suga when he returns. Nevertheless, it will be a long time before the fans get to see Suga in the UFC again.
