Sean O’Malley is set to take on his toughest test so far as champion as he fights Merab Dvalishvili at UFc Noche. However, according to a former UFC fighter, the fight won’t be that close.
Drawing parallels with the Conor McGregor and Khabib Nurmagomedov fight, former heavyweight Brendan Schaub has claimed that this is a repeat of the same fight, with the exception of Khabib’s skills as a striker.
Schaub believes the undefeated Dagestani could actually knock people out with his striking, a trait he doesn’t think Dvalishvili shares with the former lightweight champion.
According to the former heavyweight fighter, ‘Suga’ has an immense advantage over the Georgian in the striking department.
“Suga has such an advantage on the feet. Suga has more advantage on the feet against Merab than Conor had against Khabib. That’s saying a lot…And Merab goes, ‘I’m gonna stand with him’, no you’re not.”
My dude @SugaSeanMMA is about to light it up like a piñata Saturday night @ #ufcnoche pic.twitter.com/S09EtqfbgU
— Brendan Schaub (@BrendanSchaub) September 9, 2024
Schaub believes Sean O’Malley is a class apart when it comes to striking and Merab Dvalishvili won’t stand a chance if he tries to stand toe to toe with him, which to be fair is a neat assessment.
O’Malley is a tall lanky fight with exceptional striking abilities. Precision, timing, power, speed, you name it, he has it. So, to try and stand with him across the octagon for five rounds means the opponent doesn’t last five rounds. So, for Dvalishvili, takedowns, it is. Take him down and keep O’Malley there till kingdom come.
UFC veteran Henry Cejudo agrees! He recently spoke to fans about news from the O’Malley fight camp and believes it is why Dvalishvili wins the fight.
Cejudo prefers Merab over ‘Suga’
Sean O’Malley recently appeared on the Pound 4 Pound show for just 20 seconds, praised Kamaru Usman, dissed Henry Cejudo, and then left.
And for good reason. O’Malley doesn’t like Cejudo and Cejudo has an itch he needs to scratch.
As it turns out, ‘Triple C’ knows a bit about O’Malley’s fight camp for UFC Noche, or at least claims to. The Olympian told fans that O’Malley doesn’t know how to get out from the bottom once he’s been taken down.
“I know that Merab is going to win. I know a little bit of O’Malley’s fight camp and how it’s been going…he doesn’t know how to get off bottom, he’s having trouble”
Henry Cejudo says he has inside information on Sean O’Malley’s camp for #NocheUFC and says “he’s having trouble” getting up from a bottom position
He also says he’s planning on moving down to flyweight, but will stay at bantamweight to fight Sean O’Malley if he loses to Merab… pic.twitter.com/HtbdvYwZs1
— Championship Rounds (@ChampRDS) September 10, 2024
Now, this could be a big problem for the champ during the fight as he will find himself in the bottom position at some point or the other against Dvalishvili, as sure as the sun rises in the east.
