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Sean O'Malley made a bold prediction for his title rematch with Merab Dvalishvili at UFC 316. Promising a dominant performance, O'Malley voiced confidence in his abilities to win by knockout or unanimous decision.
Dvalishvili challenged O'Malley for the bantamweight title in their first meeting at Noche UFC 306 in Las Vegas. The Georgian proved to be a tough matchup for 'Sugar,' who was unable to inflict any significant damage, losing his belt via unanimous decision.
The American then went for surgery to repair a torn labrum suffered before his title fight last year. Now fully recovered, O'Malley is scheduled to make his octagon return in a title rematch headliner against Dvalishvili at UFC 316. The pay-per-view event will take place on June 7 at the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey.
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In a recent appearance on The Jim Rome Show, upon being asked about his chances of beating the reigning champion, O'Malley wittily responded:
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''I gotta win the first three rounds and I gotta win the last two rounds. I gotta break 'The Machine' and I gotta beat him, win the positions and I know I could beat Merab. He is open to be getting knocked out. I am very confident that I can put his lights out. I am also confident that I can beat him in a five round fight.''
Check out Sean O'Malley's comments below (via Home of Fight's X post):
Chael Sonnen discusses Sean O'Malley's future in the bantamweight division
Sean O'Malley gets another crack at UFC gold in a bantamweight title rematch with Merab Dvalishvili at UFC 316 next month.
In a recent interview with The Schmo, Chael Sonnen asserted that if O'Malley fails to reclaim his title from Dvalishvili, he might have to make a featherweight move, saying:
''Sean O’Malley wins this fight or quite possibly never fights at 135 again. The only path forward for Sean O’Malley, just so he doesn’t get in that terrible spot, I’ll use Rich Franklin... Rich was so good, but he had an Anderson [Silva] problem. Rich could beat everybody up badly except Anderson. Max [Holloway] ended up there with [Alexander] Volkanovski. Sometimes this happens and this will be Sean’s last shot at Merab. They’re not going to go to a part three and if he can’t get around Merab, he’s going to have to go up to 145.”
Check out Chael Sonnen's comments below (4:59):
