Ben Askren thinks Sean O'Malley running things back with Merab Dvalishvili is a risky move.
O’Malley (18-2 MMA, 10-2 UFC) rematches Dvalishvili (19-4 MMA, 12-2 UFC) June 7 in the UFC 316 headliner at Prudential Center in Newark, N.J. O’Malley lost his bantamweight title to Dvalishvili at UFC 306 by unanimous decision in September.
Askren would have preferred to see O’Malley rebound against lower-ranked opposition as opposed to jumping into an immediate rematch with Dvalishvili.
“I kind of think this is a bad move,” Askren said on his “Funky and the Champ” show with Daniel Cormier. “If he gets beat up by Merab again, then he loses a whole bunch of attraction because it’s like, well, you already lost to the champ twice, so until the champ goes away, they’re not going to give you a third shot against him. He could have fought some, maybe, lower-ranked guys.
“Against guys who can’t take him down, he kind of looks like a real freaking superstar, right? He’s really exciting, very diverse striking attack, so he could have looked really good, built the fight back up into something bigger. But now, I feel like everyone is feeling, ‘Hey, we just saw this, it wasn’t competitive. Why do we need to see this again?'”
Since their first fight, O’Malley underwent surgery to repair a torn labrum in his hip. Meanwhile, Dvalishvili notched his first title defense by handing Umar Nurmagomedov his first loss at UFC 311 in January.
“I wish Sean would have taken some more time to improve his wrestling, but he still has dynamic striking, he has knockout capabilities,” Askren said. “Merab has been relatively unstoppable looking in his last handful of fights.”
For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 316.
