‘Done Forever’: Sean O’Malley Cuts Off Major Habit to Take Back UFC Belt From Merab Dvalishvili

Allan Binoy | 29/05/2025
SEAN O'MALLEY speaks to the crowd during the fight week press conference,

Sean O’Malley has turned a new leaf in his preparation for his bantamweight title rematch against Merab Dvalishvili at UFC 316. The first time the pair fought, ‘Sugar’ was dealing with a recurring hip injury, which compromised his game plan. His lack of preparation was also widely criticized following an uncharacteristic lackluster performance. But losing the belt was probably a good thing for the former champ.

The man who would be posting skits on social media, of him smoking weed and working out, has now given everything up. The first big decision he made was to step away from social media.

After that, he started cutting out all his ‘bad habits’ one after another. In an interview with MMA Fighting, O’Malley has now claimed to have completely abandoned the ganja.

“I’m not done smoking weed forever, I definitely enjoy it. But it was kind of just giving me this anxiety I didn’t really want,” O’Malley said.

 

And the results have been very positive so far. “It was just something in me was saying, ‘Hey let’s take a (break). We’re stopping social media, we’re stopping this, we’re stopping that, let’s take a little break from it.’ And that also felt really good,” he added.

And as far as the challenge of facing Merab’s pace and chain wrestling is concerned, O’Malley claims to have found a solution for it as well.

O’Malley’s keys to victory against Merab

The first fight was a masterclass from Dvalishvili. ‘The Machine’, true to his name, kept up the relentless pressure throughout all 5 rounds to secure the decision victory. O’Malley just didn’t have any answer to the Georgian’s repeated takedowns and positional control.

But this time around, ‘Sugar’ is way more confident. With his body more or less at 100% now and a good training camp, the former champ, in conversation with Jim Rome, claimed he has been putting in the ground work — quite literally.

“It’s been a lot of grappling. That’s all we’ve been doing.” O’Malley said.

 

“I gotta break the machine. I gotta beat him… I know I can beat Merab. He’s open to getting knocked out. I’m very confident that I can put his lights out”, he asserted.

As his previous fights have shown, Merab has flaws in his defense against good strikers and does get clipped. But he also has an amazing chin, and doesn’t let the fight stay on the feet for too long, where ‘Sugar’ has an advantage.

So for O’Malley’s plan to work, his takedown defense and his wrestling will have to be near perfect on the night.

Post Edited By: Smrutisnat Jena
Merab Dvalishvili Sean O'Malley

About the author

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Allan Binoy

Allan Binoy is a MMA journalist at The SportsRush. Taken to the sport in 2015, thanks to a certain Conor McGregor, Allan has himself dabbled in the martial arts. And having graduated from Loyola College, Chennai, with a degree in English Literature, he has learnt to use his love for language to have a voice in the MMA community. Allan has been writing about the gladiatorial stories for more than three years now and has pursued excellence at a number of reputable media organizations, covering every UFC PPV in the last couple of years. In addition to this, the southpaw is also a semi-professional soccer player for Diego Juniors FC in Pune, playing in the Pune Super Division League.

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