Just days out from his UFC 316 headliner, Merab Dvalishvili wants to remove all doubts from his rivalry with Sean O’Malley — vowing to finish the Montana striker in their title re-run this weekend in New Jersey.
Dvalishvili, who headlined Noche UFC in September of last year against Contender Series alum, O’Malley, managed to win the undisputed bantamweight crown in a hard-fought unanimous decision win over the Montana fan-favorite.
And in January of this year, the Georgian headlined UFC 311, where he handed rival, Umar Nurmagomedov his first-ever combat sports loss in another unanimous decision win to defend his crown for the first time.
For O’Malley, the dynamic striker has been sidelined from action since his title fight loss to Dvalishvili, but nevertheless, has been afforded a title rematch immediately against the Tbilisi grappling ace.
But this time around, following their decision back-and-forth at The Las Vegas Sphere last year, Dvalishvili has vowed to remove all doubt — claiming he will gun for the finish against O’Malley at the Prudential Center this weekend.
Merab Dvalishvili plans to finish Sean O’Malley at UFC 316
“This time, I will be more focused on the finish and more focused on damage,” Merab Dvalishvili said during an interview with assembled media during his availability this week. “In the first fight, it was too easy, and I was too relaxed. I controlled everything, even had some fun in there. But this time, I’m looking for the finish—that’s what we’ve been working on.
“I love training and fighting,” Merab Dvalishvili explained. “Everybody knows I’m always training—even on vacation, I’m still running and doing my best. Every time I have a fight in the UFC, I’m blessed. I’m happy to be busy and have the best job in the world. After this fight, I want to test a new weight-cutting style to make it even easier for me to fight often.”
