Sean O’Malley promises better performance this time against Merab Dvalishvili.
On Tuesday, UFC CEO Dana White revealed that O’Malley will challenge Dvalishvili for the bantamweight title in the main event of UFC 316 in June. But O’Malley claims things are different this time.
“The rematch is official,” O’Malley said on his YouTube channel. “There’s ‘Suga’ Sean vs. Merab 2 happening. I don’t think people will be too happy about it….
“The last time I fought against the best bantamweight in the world, the best bantamweight of the time (Aljamann Sterling at UFC 292) – I did the job. I’m very confident in my skills. I don’t want to sit here for the last camp and make excuses. Good.
O’Malley got another crack at Dvalishvili and met with backlash from the MMA community. Their first battle was a clear victory for the “machine.” He has since defended the title against Umar Nurmagomedov. Meanwhile, O’Malley hasn’t fought since losing to Dvalishvili. Instead, Suga has undergone surgery to resolve hip problems and is recovering. However, O’Malley says he’s already in training camp for this rematch and intends to prove that Dvalishvili won the first fight as he wasn’t in his best form.
“The last fight camp, all the journal entries were like, “My gro caliber kept me at night.” “I was tearing my lips at the gro caliber and feeling serious gro caliber pain. It was super. It wasn’t ideal. I could train. I managed to get through it, but obviously it’s not ideal to go to a fight with the killer, especially.
“If I can just keep this pace and train all the way to the fight over the last few weeks, I’ll be 70% better than that first fight. I’m going to be very mobile, agile, better shape. This rematch is supposed to make this victory even more crazy.”
UFC 316 will be down June 7th at Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey