Merab Dvalishvili delivered one of the most dominant performances within the Octagon on Saturday night, submitting Sean O’Malley to maintain the Bantamweight World title at UFC 316.
In the opening round, Dvalishvili seemed to be cornering O’Malley, landing a lovely takedown that put him in top control. To O’Malley’s achievement, he managed to get back and fight, avoiding hitting the mat throughout the second stanza. Nevertheless, it appeared that the “machine” was landing a more shocking strike in the first 10 minutes.
After a relatively close second, Dvalishvili was ready to bring things to the mat quickly, shooting for a takedown, causing “sugar” to crash into the mat. Dvalishvili settled on O’Malley’s guard and left him there for the next few minutes until O’Malley inched himself towards the fence and returned to the wall.
Unfortunately for O’Malley, Dvalishvili quickly put him back on the mat with every energy expenditure.
While trying to get off the canvas once more, O’Malley left his neck open, allowing dvalishvili to lock the anaconda choke. Despite our best efforts to defend “sugar,” there is no choice but to tap out.
Official Results:Merab dvalishvili def. Sean O’Malley submitted at 4:42 in Round 3 (Anaconda Choke).