As the UFC octagon awaits a bantamweight championship bout featuring Sean O’Malley and Merab Dvalishvili, fans have been wary of how much the Georgian’s ground game affect the champion. Now, ‘Suga’ is a fan-favorite champion known for his exceptional striking and counter-punching abilities but what most casuals often miss out on is he actually does have a solid ground game.
As a matter of fact, the 29-year-old , ahead of his title fight against then-champion Aljamain Sterling last year had showed his grappling prowess. He had submitted Pride FC lightweight champion, Takanori Gomi at Quintet Ultra in Vegas in under three minutes.
Gomi is a certified Japanese champion with several accolades in combat sports, winning every lightweight accolade put forth by the defunct Pride FC.
In fact, during his glory days ‘The Fireball Kid’ recorded the quickest knockout in the promotion laying out Ralph Gracie in six seconds! He also held the record for the longest winning streak in the promotion remaining undefeated with ten wins from 2004 to 2006.
In addition to these feats, he also registered a 12-fight win streak in Shooto, becoming the champion in the LW division. He was also a four-time All-Japan Combat Wrestling Champion.
Now that we’ve established the Japanese warrior’s skill, let us see how O’Malley dismantled him on the ground. All it took for the American was just three minutes to figure out his opponent.
While Gomi tried to shoot for a takedown, the Montana native gracefully stuffed it and when they clinched, the American showed his mettle effectively using under hooks to neutralize Gomi’s elite wrestling.
Furthermore, he successfully seized the opportunity and trapped the Japanese with a tight guillotine when he shot for the takedown, submitting Gomi in round 1 of their grappling bout.
Now, coming to the million-dollar question, can O’Malley use the same tactics with a pressure fighter like Merab Dvalishvili? Read along to find out.
O’Malley vs Dvalishvili: A detailed analysis
In all fairness, Sean O’Malley does have the tools to defeat the Georgian challenger on paper. He has quick hands, the reach, fast cat-like reflexes, and most importantly a solid ground game to negate ‘The Machine’s’ proven pressure wrestling style.
Irrespective of that, will he be able to stuff 49-50 takedowns like when Merab cemented a UFC record of 49 takedowns against Petr Yan?
Well, while that seems highly unlikely, the 29-year-old does have the skills to submit Merab on the ground if the fight gets there. Besides, he also has the reach advantage to keep the challenger at bay with his crisp boxing.
With that being said, Dvalishvili is known for his insane cardio and certainly can out-wrestle the champion if he can get close. He has done it to Olympic medalists like Henry Cejudo in the past.
Furthermore, strictly based on stats, O’Malley has never been defeated via submission in the UFC, and nor has he won by it.
Similarly, Merab, in his 12 fights in the promotion, he had recorded just one finish and is yet to submit an opponent. However, he has lost a controversial loss via submission, specifically by guillotine, an area where O’Malley evidently excels.
