Sean O’Malley Wants UFC Fans Watching His Fights Expecting Something They’ve Never Seen Before

Former UFC bantamweight champ Sean O’Malley is pulling out all the stops ahead of his UFC 316 main event rematch with Merab Dvalishvili on June 7th in Newark. After his loss to Dvalishvili at UFC 306—where he felt robbed by the judges—O’Malley has been off the Octagon to recover from a hip injury and completely rethink his lifestyle for this big comeback.

Now, in his reincarnated avatar, O’Malley is asking people to expect something they have never seen from him, even though they are opposed to him getting an immediate rematch for a lack of belief in his capabilities.

At UFC 306, Dvalishvili, fighting for his first bantamweight title, not only took the fight to O’Malley, he made the fight look an utterly one-sided affair. O’Malley’s attempts at counter striking were laid futile as Merab kept rushing him to the ground to win the title by unanimous decision.

Since then, Merab has gone one to better his performance, winning against a far more dangerous fighter in Umar Nurmagomedov at UFC 311 earlier his year in a far more competitive fight. O’Malley, on the other hand, has been in recovery from a hip surgery, which doesn’t warrant much confidence about any newfound abilities he might use to defeat Merab.

Regardless, O’Malley maintains a new dawn is on the horizon.

“I feel like a lot of things that have changed in my life are going to contribute to my performance,” he said. One major shift? Ditching social media completely.

“I decided in 2025 I’m done with social media. It’s only been three months, but it’s changed my life, and I feel like that’s going to play a role in my performance,” he explained.

Apart from that, he has also stopped any kind of self-pleasuring activities like gaming and smoking weed. Now, the smoking part should ideally help with the cardio, but it’s unlikely to make a difference against Merab.

“I want people to watch my fights because they wanna watch my skillsets…..Watch something be done that no one thinks is going to be done”, O’Malley asserted regardless.

But if he could do all this, why didn’t he do it the first time around? Apparently, he had an underwhelming camp.

Can O’Malley pull off the upset?

According to the former UFC champion, a lot was going on during his last fight camp- a nagging groin injury, not feeling up to the mark, and many other things which he did not want to get into.

But the changes he’s made since, will they be enough?

But, as the popular saying goes, styles make fights, and Dvalishvili’s style is ‘Sugar’s’ kryptonite.

O’Malley claims he will be more agile and faster this time around, but that doesn’t change the fact that ‘The Machine’, as his name suggests, is going to do the same thing in the rematch.

Constant, unyielding pressure for 5 whole rounds, attempting takedown after takedown and controlling the fight. It’s very likely that O’Malley will get dropped on his head at UFC 316. It will be almost futile to fight it, even if he manages to work on his takedown defense.

However, given that he managed to clock Merab more than once in the 5th round at UFC 306, should he approach the fight with an aggressive intent, he could possibly push Merab back into a shell, because right now, the Georgian is on an all-time high.

Having already taken the zero from the once undefeated Nurmagomedovs, Merab will look to coast through yet another title defense on June 7.