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Trust Chael Sonnen to offer a fresh take on the fight game, and this time it came in the form of an observation from the UFC 306 main event fight between Sean O'Malley and Merab Dvalisivili.
At UFC 306, Dvalishvili dominated O’Malley to capture the bantamweight title through his patent display of control and pace. He racked up six takedowns and over ten minutes of control time. While on paper the victory was clear, Sonnen doesn’t think the numbers tell the full story.
Watching cage-side without the influence of commentary, Sonnen believes the fight could’ve swung the other way. In his eyes, O’Malley’s sharper moments in the later rounds may have tipped it 3-2 in his favor. It’s a call that few raised at the time, but one he insists deserves a second look.
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Speaking in a recent interview with MMA Junkie, Sonnen said:
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"O'Malley vs. Merab, I'm not sure that Merab won that night. I mean, that wasn't really met with a lot of controversy. That was pretty widely accepted, and we all got up and went home. That surprised me. If you go back and you watch that fourth and fifth round, you might come to a different opinion than you did the first time. I mean, that fight might have been 3-2 O'Malley." [H/t: MMA Junkie]
He added:
"I'm not sure that Merab won that night... I mean, that wasn't really met with a lot of controversy. That was pretty widely accepted, and we all got up and went home. That surprised me. If you go back and you watch that fourth and fifth round, you might come to a different opinion than you did the first time. I mean, that fight might have been 3-2 O'Malley."
Merab Dvalishvili brushes off toe injury ahead of UFC 316 clash against Sean O'Malley
Merab Dvalishvili isn’t letting a swollen toe slow him down. The UFC bantamweight champ shared a light-hearted video blaming a teammate for the injury, but the online reaction caught him off guard.
He never expected so much buzz over something he considers minor. Despite the visible swelling, Dvalishvili insists it won’t affect his rematch with Sean O’Malley at UFC 316. He even showed his foot to the media at Syndicate MMA to prove it’s already healing.
Speaking at the pre-fight media scrum, Dvalishvili said:
“I was surprised at how much reaction there was from people reacting. Everybody was like [freaking out]. Guys, it’s nothing. Really, it’s nothing.”
Check out Merab Dvalishvili's comments below:
