When Sean O’Malley (18-2, 1 NC) and Merab Dvalishvili (19-4) fought at UFC 306, O’Malley was not at his best. On Tuesday, UFC CEO Dana White announced that a rematch between O’Malley and Dvalishvili headlines the UFC 316 fight card in June and O’Malley say’s he’ll be about to complete at his ‘full potential.
“The rematch is official,” O’Malley said on his YouTube channel. “‘Suga’ Sean vs. Merab 2 is happening, and I don’t think people are going to be too happy about it.
“The last time I fought the best bantamweight in the world—the best bantamweight at the time [Aljamain Sterling]—I got the job done. I’m very confident in my skills. Last camp we had some sh*t going on. I don’t want to sit here and make excuses. We had a great camp, I showed up, I was in shape, we did what we could with what we were able to do. This camp has already been a lot different and I’m feeling good. I’m excited to go out there and take care of business.”
Following the UFC 306 loss to Dvalishvili, O’Malley underwent hip surgery. Dvalishvili went on to defend his title against Umar Nurmagomedov at UFC 311. Recovered and back in training, O’Malley expects to be a much better version of himself when the two clash again in Newark, New Jersey.
Related: Chael Sonnen: ‘There is not an athlete under UFC contract that Conor McGregor can beat’
“Last fight camp, every single journal entry was like, ‘My groin kept me up at night’ because I tore my labrum 10 weeks before the fight,” O’Malley said. “I tore my groin labrum and I was having serious groin pain. It was super—it wasn’t ideal. I was able to train, I was able to tough through it, but obviously it’s not ideal to go into a fight, especially against a f*cking murderer—well, not a murderer, but a stud, an absolute machine.
“If I can just keep this pace up, how we’ve been able to train the last few weeks, all the way up to the fight, I’m going to be 70 percent better than I was in that first fight. I’m going to be significantly more mobile, agile, better shape. I’m going to fight at my full potential. Whereas my last fight, I was very happy with how I was able to perform considering how I felt. It wasn’t ideal, the outcome, I didn’t win, but I also think I wasn’t supposed to win. This rematch was supposed to happen. It’s going to make this win that much more crazy.”
