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Sean O'Malley has not competed since last September when he lost to Merab Dvalishvili via unanimous decision at UFC 306, losing the bantamweight title in the process. He is set to make his return in just over a week as he receives a rematch at UFC 316.
While the result of their first matchup was without controversy, Chael Sonnen recently made the case that the judges may have gotten the result wrong. Speaking to Mike Bohn of The Bohnfire podcast, the UFC Hall of Famer claimed:
"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."
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Bohn noted that O'Malley made the case he was the rightful winner, but was declared crazy, leading Sonnen to add:
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"He wasn't though. He wasn't crazy. If you went back and watched it, the announcers were influencing it from the very beginning on that... From my perspective - because I didn't have the announcer, I was there live - so I didn't get to hear any of that, I just watched the fight. And when it was done, I'm like, 'oh, close fight, but O'Malley won'. And it just wasn't the case."
Check out Chael Sonnen's comments on Sean O'Malley vs. Merab Dvalishvili below (32:16):
Sonnen added that if either O'Malley or Dvalishvili has more motivation in their rematch, it will be the former. He suggested that the upcoming bout may not be competitive.
Sean O'Malley's coach elaborates on his previous comments about The Sphere lighting
Sean O'Malley's coach, Tim Welch, previously claimed that the lighting in The Sphere may have played a role in 'Suga' losing his bantamweight title. He appeared on The Ariel Helwani Show on Wednesday, where he elaborated on those comments, stating:
"It was just that whole night. You always see Sean when he gets in the octagon, he'll get in the guy's face, he'll walk up to him with his arms open, and he just has that aura about him. He didn't do any of that. We didn't really get to see the Sphere at all until we walked out of the cage and it just felt quite a bit different. I don't know if it was the Sphere that had to do with it, but just that night, it's just something about it. We were meant to lose that fight and now it's just gonna make this one that much sweeter."
Check out Tim Welch's comments on how the lighting affected Sean O'Malley below:
O'Malley previously avenged the only other loss of his career by defeating Marlon 'Chito' Vera via unanimous decision at UFC 299. He has shared that he has changed his habits leading up to his rematch with Merab Dvalishvili.
