Sean O’Malley lost to Merab Dvalishvili again and afterwards, there wasn’t much he could say about his latest defeat.
Saturday’s UFC 316 main event saw Dvalishvili successfully defend his bantamweight title with a third-round submission of O’Malley, the man Dvalishvili took the belt from at UFC 306 nine months ago. Though O’Malley showed marked improvement in his ability to defend Dvalishvili’s relentless takedown assault, the champion still found ways to ground O’Malley and neutralize his striking game.
Dvalishvili wore O’Malley down with his suffocating wrestling and ground-and-pound before finishing with a choke in the closing seconds of Round 3. Afterwards, O’Malley was given time to speak post-fight, and he did his best to sum up his disappointment while giving Dvalishvili his due.
“I didn’t feel like it was going to go like that, unfortunately it did,” O’Malley said. “Merab’s a motherf*cker. I just wanted to stick around and thank everybody that came out and supported us. If it wasn’t for you guys, this shit wouldn’t be possible. I feel super, super grateful right now that I get to do this.”
“I have a two-week[-old] at home, a four-year-old at home, and a perfect wife, so I’m excited to go home and spend time with them, but Merab’s a motherf*cker.”
The end result left some fighters wondering why O’Malley was given a rematch, especially considering he had not fought since losing to Dvalishvili in their first meeting. At UFC 306, Dvalishvili’s wrestling stifled O’Malley for five rounds en route to a Dvalishvili decision win, and this victory took even less time even though O’Malley arguably put up a better fight.
O’Malley, 30, now has a long climb back to the top of the bantamweight ladder as long as Dvalishvili reigns, so his future is uncertain. All he knows is that he definitely plans to come back stronger.
“A hundred percent,” O’Malley said when interviewer Joe Rogan said fans will definitely see him again. “Thank you guys for coming out.”
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