Merab Dvalishvili has the mysterious ability to break the will of others. It usually happens with his relentless pressure and non-stop conditioning, but his head coach doesn’t think it led to Sean O’Malley’s downfall at UFC 316.
After beating O’Malley in this first encounter in September, the UFC dominant bantamweight champion managed to top himself in a rematch with an impressive third-round finish after snatching the nasty choke that ended the fight. Again, Dvalishvili’s wrestling and grappling got a central staging, but John Wood believes he saw a change in O’Malley’s attitude even early in the fight when they were trading shots on their feet.
“I believe knockout was an option,” Wood told MMA Fighting. “I don’t know if anyone noticed, but he touched him pretty well and shook him a few times. The goal ends again, but you can win the battle. Your first goal is to win the battle.
“That person, the fighter jet broke and they didn’t want to be there anymore, and there’s a moment in every fight they didn’t want to be there, even if they watch it unconsciously, they don’t want to be there, and they give them the option and opportunity to get out of it.”
So when did O’Malley break exactly in the rematch?
Wood says there were some notable moments on him, but the real highlight was when Dvalishvili passed through O’Malley’s takedown defense, lifted him into the air and crashed again in the middle of the cage.
O’Malley said that after the first fight was over, a hip injury prevented him from really training his grappling before facing Dvalishvili, but he wasn’t holding him back this time. Wood gives credit for O’Malley showing improvements, but he knows that Dvalishvili’s slam takedown had to deal a blow to him in the fight.
“I think that was the beginning,” Wood said of the takedown that led to O’Malley’s end mise. “I think even Round One had the success of telling Merab to Merab at Merab All Camp, and I think that happened after the first round.
“But yes, another guy welcomes you like a child, carry you, defeat you, do anything, and nothing you’re doing seems to work. There’s no way you don’t feel a certain way.
Wood was a little unsurprising that he had hoped that Dvalishvili would look for a finish in the third round, and was forced out of O’Malley, many times before the rematch.
It was impressive, but Wood promises that dvalishvili is just getting started when it comes to showing off his ability to clean up his enemies, and he expects O’Malley to be the first of many who have experienced it.
“Mark my words, this is not the first and only submission,” Wood said. “There’s knockouts, there’s TKO. He’s still getting better and I think Sean has gotten better, but Sean defended the takedown in his first fight. Sean did things in the round in his first fight.
“Merab is special. People are beginning to recognize it now. His timing, his vision, the way he listens and learns, he is special.
With O’Malley wins twice and his second fight ending with a finish, Dvalishvili is now moving forward with his career as he begins to seek new challenges.
Fighters like Cory Sandhagen and Mario Bautista are probably close to the top of the list of potential candidates who have never fought the champion before, but Dvalishvili is clearly not opposed to a rematch if the UFC wants from him.
Given the land rugs at Bantamweight, Wood hopes that Dvalishvili will focus on new objectives while putting O’Malley in the rearview mirror, but will not underestimate the possibility that the UFC will reassemble that fight in the future.
“In real life, I don’t think I’ll ever see it again,” Wood said of his face with O’Malley. “In the UFC realm, you decide to decide on a victory. If O’Malley goes out there and starches the next guy, everyone jumps back to the bandwagon… and he might come and say, “When you fight Merab.”
“The UFC, if they can get behind it and their marketing machines and they can earn it, they’ll do it. You’ll do it. You should always fight the next best guy, not the business of the best guys rankings, and the next best guy isn’t the way it goes.
What should O’Malley do to justify his third fight with Dvalishvili?
His coach believes it’s a massive climb back to the bantamweight ladder, but he’s not passing it past O’Malley.
“I don’t think Sean will be the next best guy for a while,” Wood said. “I think there are other people. He’ll have to go through the line of murderers and beat everyone pretty conveniently. So with him (will he go) 145 (lbs), they’re big, O’Malley is size and range, but he doesn’t have a very large frame from the muscles.
“But I think there’s some good fight for him that he wins (135 pounds) and then you get it from there. You win a few more times and make that decision. He’s clearly a very talented fighter who people want to see.”