Former bantamweight champion Sean O’Malley looks to settle the score with current titleholder Merab Dvalishvili at UFC 316 on June 7.
Dvalishvili (19-4) earned the UFC 135-pound championship by defeating O’Malley at UFC 306 last September. Following the fight, O’Malley headed into surgery.
“I got surgery. It was weird scheduling surgery for after a fight and still making the walk. To be honest, in the fight, I didn’t feel like it was much of a big deal as it was the preparation leading up to the fight,” O’Malley told Kevin Iole.
“I wasn’t able to do what needs to be done to fight someone like Merab Dvalishvili, and that’s wrestle. Wrestle, grapple, wrestle, grapple wrestle, grapple every day for 12 weeks. That’s what I should have done last fight camp but just wasn’t able to. I was lucky to get one grappling session in a week last camp.”
Despite the limitations in preparation, O’Malley was confident that he’d defeat “The Machine” in their first meeting at UFC 306. After all, he’d had worse training camps before.
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“Still confident. Still walked into that cage like I was going to knock Merab out, but just didn’t have the preparation that was needed. But this camp I was able to do that,” O’Malley said. “I was able to what’s needed to be done to beat a guy like that.”
“I was still confident that I was going to beat Merab. I didn’t enter that cage thinking I’m going to lose. I went into that fight thinking I was going to win,” O’Malley continued.
“I thought I was still going to go out there and beat him. I fought Aljo (Aljamain Sterling) hurt with the rib injury. I had a worse training camp for Aljo than I did for Merab. I still went out there and knocked out Aljo… I still thought I was going to go out there and put his lights out.”
Heading into the rematch, O’Malley says he’s ‘more confident than ever.’ A second loss to Dvalishvili would present a steep hill to climb for O’Malley to secure a third fight.
“I’ve lost zero confidence going into this fight. I’m more confident than ever,” he said. “I’m ready to go.”
