Sean O’Malley thinks Merab Dvalishvili could be the root of his own collapse.
The UFC bantamweight champ is back this Saturday in Las Vegas for a record breaking title defense.
Dvalishvili will face Petr Yan at UFC 323 in a headlining rematch that marks the Georgian’s fourth title defense of this calendar year, making the Georgian the first champ to achieve the feat.
‘The Machine’ is coming off another impressive performance, and he was even able to show further striking developments against Cory Sandhagen in October.
But it is that growing confidence on the feet that O’Malley says may backfire…
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Sean O’Malley warns that Merab Dvalishvili could cause his own downfall
Aljamain sterling predicts that Dvalishvili will be KO’d on December 6 after John Wood revealed that he encouraged the champion to feel freer to strike his challengers.
During an appearance on The Ariel Helwani Show, O’Malley highlighted the Georgian’s rising self-belief on the feet in recent fights, describing it as the one path to victory for Yan at UFC 323.
“The only way I see Yan beating him is — Merab is getting confident with his hands,” O’Malley said.
“He damn near knocked out Cory Sandhagen. But he’s punching more. He also did it when he threw some more combinations with Umar Nurmagomedov.
“Petr is someone you’ve got to be careful with, like keeping your chin up, because he will capitalize,”He added.
“(Yan’s) got such good counters, he’s fast, he’ll sit in the pocket, he’ll trade.”
Dvalishvili’s last TKO came against Marlon Moraes at UFC 266 in 2021. In that match, the Georgian was knocked to the ground for the very first time in the promotion. This is what can happen when the champ starts fighting on his feet.
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2025-12-05 17:00:00
