Sean O’Malley suffered a second straight loss to Merab Dvalishvili at UFC 316, a result that seemingly knocks him out of the bantamweight title race for the time being. However, his head coach hopes that won’t stop him from returning to action soon.
The rematch with Dvalishvili took place less than nine months after their first meeting with O’Malley undergoing hip surgery in the interim to repair damage done from his training camp to compete at UFC 306 this past September. This time around, O’Malley may have suffered another loss, but he walked away largely unscathed, which makes a quicker turnaround that much more possible.
While nothing has been offered or accepted, O’Malley’s longtime head coach Tim Welch believes another fight could be booked in the near future.
“It’s so hard to say with him but again, right now we’re not going to clubs, we’re not f*cking partying, we’re saying no to trips. So what else are we going to do?” Welch said on his YouTube channel about O’Malley fighting again.
“We’re coming to the gym twice a day. We’re going to train. Might as well [fight]. Might as well not let these years go by. He’s only 30 years old. Might as well just knock them out. Let’s just keep knocking them out.”
A second straight loss to Dvalishvili is a tough pill to swallow, but O’Malley remains one of the most popular and talked-about stars on the entire roster.
As long as the Georgian holds the belt, O’Malley may not get back to a third fight against him, but there are plenty of other options available. Add to that, Welch says you have to look no further that a couple of the biggest names in recent UFC history to see that star power isn’t necessarily diminished after some tough losses.
“Look at Nate Diaz, how big of a star he is,” Welch said. “How many losses does he have? Jorge Masvidal, how many losses does he have? They’re still just f*cking huge draws. Huge stars.”
It’s tough to argue with that logic and now it just remains to be seen when O’Malley decides to compete again with a long list of potential opponents awaiting him in the bantamweight division.
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