Merab Dvalishvili Submits Sean O’Malley at UFC 316

Merab Dvalishvili just dominated Sean O’Malley in a UFC bantamweight rematch on Saturday, the 7th of June, atop the UFC 316 pay-per-view show which ESPN broadcasted as a pay-per-view from the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey.

Dvalishvili and O’Malley fought once before, at UFC 306 on the 14th of September, last year. Dvalishvili won the UFC bantamweight championship with a unanimous decision win over the American, and then defended his title with another win on points over Umar Nurmagomedov, early this year.

Drama unfolded before the fighters had even entered the Octagon fully as, with O’Malley already in the cage, a fan appeared to fall through the barricade just meters away from Dvalishvili, who was in the middle of his ringwalk. Security intervened, and Dvalishvili appeared unfazed.

Watch it right here:

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Merab Dvalishvili Defeats Sean O’Malley

It was a case of repeat rather than revenge at UFC’s latest show

Though O’Malley used lateral movement to avoid Dvalishvili’s best work, Merab, renowned for his endurance, took O’Malley down in the opener and pressed him against the cage when he was up to his feet, in between another takedown. Dvalishvili pressured him again to start the second, landed combinations, and avoided O’Malley’s best hits. O’Malley did better defending Dvalishvili’s takedowns in the second.

Dvalishvili took O’Malley down again in the third, punished him from top position, and forced him to tap with a choke. It was tight. And it was all over! Though Dvalishvili’s beaten legends like Jose Aldo, Petr Yan, and Henry Cejudo, and despite being O’Malley already, and the avoided MMA monster Umar Nurmagomedov, it’s perhaps the rematch win over O’Malley that caps an already incredible resume; a true statement in the bantamweight division.

Watch the finish right here:

“He was well-prepared,” said Dvalishvili of O’Malley. “I knew he was gonna make changes because every time I lost, I made big changes and I learned from it.

Victory advanced Dvalishvili’s pro MMA record to 20 wins (3 KOs and 2 Submissions) against four losses.

“100%, I’ll be back,” said O’Malley.

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