Sean O’Malley guarantees a greater efficiency this time round in opposition to Merab Dvalishvili.
On Tuesday, UFC CEO Dana White revealed that O’Malley will problem Dvalishvili for the bantamweight title in the primary occasion of UFC 316 in June, a rematch of their UFC 306 title battle that noticed Dvalishvili win by dominant choice. However O’Malley insists issues can be totally different this time.
“The rematch is official,” O’Malley stated on his YouTube channel. “‘Suga’ Sean vs. Merab 2 is occurring, and I don’t suppose individuals are going to be too pleased about it. …
“The final time I fought the very best bantamweight on the planet—the very best bantamweight on the time [Aljamain Sterling at UFC 292]—I obtained the job performed. I’m very assured in my abilities. Final camp we had some shit occurring. I don’t need to sit right here and make excuses. We had an amazing camp, I confirmed up, I used to be in form, we did what we may with what we have been capable of do. This camp has already been loads totally different and I’m feeling good. I’m excited to go on the market and deal with enterprise.”
O’Malley getting one other crack at Dvalishvili was met with backlash from the MMA neighborhood. Their first battle was a transparent win for “The Machine,” who has since defended his title in opposition to Umar Nurmagomedov. O’Malley, in the meantime, has not fought since shedding to Dvalishvili. As an alternative, “Suga” underwent surgical procedure to repair a hip subject and has been recovering. Nevertheless, O’Malley says he’s already in coaching camp for this rematch and intends to show that Dvalishvili solely gained the primary battle as a result of he wasn’t at his finest.
“Final battle camp, each single journal entry was like, ‘My groin saved me up at night time’ as a result of I tore my labrum 10 weeks earlier than the battle,” O’Malley stated. “I tore my groin labrum and I used to be having severe groin ache. It was tremendous—it wasn’t perfect. I used to be capable of prepare, I used to be capable of powerful by means of it, however clearly it’s not perfect to enter a battle, particularly in opposition to a f*cking assassin—nicely, not a assassin, however a stud, an absolute machine [like Merab]. …
“If I can simply preserve this tempo up, how we’ve been capable of prepare the previous few weeks, all the best way as much as the battle, I’m going to be 70 p.c higher than I used to be in that first battle. I’m going to be considerably extra cell, agile, higher form. I’m going to battle at my full potential. Whereas my final battle, I used to be very proud of how I used to be capable of carry out contemplating how I felt. It wasn’t perfect, the result, I didn’t win, however I additionally suppose I wasn’t alleged to win. This rematch was alleged to occur. It’s going to make this win that rather more loopy.”
UFC 316 goes down June 7 at Prudential Heart in Newark, N.J.
