Officially set to rematch at UFC 316 at the beginning of June, undisputed bantamweight kingpin, Merab Dvalishvili has done his utmost to rile incoming foe, Sean O’Malley — reminding him of his Noche UFC title fight loss in September of last year.
Dvalishvili, the current undisputed champion at 135lbs, has been sidelined since he co-headlined UFC 311 back in January.
And handing the surging Russian contender, Umar Nurmagomedov his first professional loss, Dvalishvili turned in a dominant, one-sided unanimous decision win. The victory came as the Georgian’s first as champion, following his prior decision success against O’Malley back in September.
Merab Dvalishvili claims he’s stolen Sean O’Malley’s fans pre-UFC 315
Ramping up their rivalry ahead of UFC 316, Dvalishvili has mocked O’Malley after stealing his jacket during his pre-fight staredown with teammate, Aljamain Sterling — before then taking his belt, and in his opinion, the Montana striker’s fans.
“He’s (Sean O’Malley) funny, he’s cute, and he’s a good fighter too,” Merab Dvalishvili told Ariel Helwani for Uncrowned.” “I have only positive feelings [about O’Malley], other than he was talking stupid about my friend, Aljamain Sterling.
“I feel bad, actually, for this guy. I stole his jacket, I stole his belt, I stole his fans, I made him humble. He’s different guy now. Good for him, and good for me too, how everything happened. Life is good, camp is good. I’m grateful for everything.”
And appearing supremely confident of once more turning back O’Malley, Merab Dvalishvili has been warned by the Contender Series alum, that a better version of the fighter he faced last September will await him in the Octagon at UFC 316.
“And I was thinking about how good I feel right now. I was like, oh, I want to jinx it. But dude, if I can just keep this pace up, how we’ve been able to train these last few weeks, all the way up into the fight, I’m going to feel, I’m going to be 70% better than I was in that first fight,” Sean O’Malley explained. “I’m going to be significantly more mobile, agile, better shape.”
