Former champ Sean O’Malley has a tough task ahead of him at UFC 316.
Almost nine months have passed since Sean O’Malley dropped the bantamweight title to Merab Dvalishvili at the Sphere last year at UFC 306. Injured before the fight even started, O’Malley was outwrestled to a relatively lopsided decision.
Coming off the loss and a successful surgery on his torn labrum, O’Malley is back in action in two weeks as he meets Dvalishvili again in the main event of UFC 316 on June 7th.
The champion Dvalishvili’s riding a 12-fight win streak and is considered to be the greatest bantamweight of all time by former two-division champion Henry Cejudo and O’Malley’s head coach Tim Welch.
Dvalishvili stands as a 3-to-1 betting favorite in the rematch with many predicting his pressure-heavy wrestling and seemingly unbeatable gas tank to be more than enough for O’Malley, who’s known for his striking.
UFC commentator Joe Rogan likes what he sees from the bantamweights ahead of the title fight but did express some concern for O’Malley in his latest breakdown.
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Photo by Chris Unger/Zuffa LLCJoe Rogan has no idea how Sean O’Malley shuts down Merab Dvalishvili’s grappling at UFC 316Dvalishvili scored six takedowns and had 10 minutes of control time on O’Malley in their first fight. While O’Malley will be more prepared for the grappling exchanges in the rematch, Rogan questions how the striker keeps the relentless Dvalishvili at bay.
“That’s an interesting fight,” Rogan said of Dvalishvili vs. O’Malley 2 on The Joe Rogan Experience.
“Very interesting fight. I do not know how ‘Suga’ Sean keeps that guy off of him…
“He’s a f—— animal,” the UFC commentator said about Dvalishvili. “That guy’s superhuman. There’s no one like him. The cardio that guy has is off the charts. It’s just off the charts.
“I’ve never seen anything like it. He doesn’t get tired. He’s full gas, no brakes the entire fight.
“It’s just smothering, overwhelming people. Even [Umar] Nurmagomedov, who’s also an animal. He couldn’t keep [Dvalishvili] off of him. This m———— crazy.”
Dvalishvili handed Umar Nurmagomedov his first loss at UFC 311 in January by unanimous decision. The bantamweight champion taunted Nurmagomedov by taking him down in front of his legendary cousin Khabib Nurmagomedov.
Joe Rogan says he’s a fan of Sean O’Malley’s lifestyle changes Following his UFC title loss to Dvalishvili, O’Malley knew something had to change.
Before adding all-time greats Demetrious Johnson and Israel Adesanya to his training camp, O’Malley ‘dialed in’ by giving up several vices ahead of the Dvalishvili fight.
“I do like what he’s been doing,” Rogan said of O’Malley’s lifestyle changes.
“Got off social media, stopped smoking, just dialed in.
“Got his hip fixed, which was a big problem,” Rogan mentioned O’Malley’s torn labrum injury prior to the Dvalishvili fight.
“There’s a lot of these fighters that take these fights because it’s a lot of money and it’s a big event and they don’t wanna cancel and they got a significant injury.
“Sean could not wrestle,” Rogan said.
“Imagine not being able to wrestle in camp and you gotta go face Merab…”
