Daniel Cormier warns Sean O'Malley of what a potential second loss to UFC Merab Dvalishvili could do to his career.
O’Malley (18-2 MMA, 10-2 UFC) lost his bantamweight title to Dvalishvili by unanimous decision at UFC 306 this past September. Dvalishvili (19-4 MMA, 12-2 UFC) went on to defend his title by handing Umar Nurmagomedov his first-career loss at UFC 311.
O’Malley has since undergone surgery for a torn left labrum, but it appears that UFC CEO Dana White is touting him as the next title challenger. Considering that O’Malley was taken down six times and controlled for over 10 minutes in his loss to Dvalishvili, Cormier doubts a rematch would go any differently.
“I think, unless Sean O’Malley makes some wholesale changes to his wrestling, to his grappling, to his defensive ability off of his back, it’s going to be very, very difficult,” Cormier said on his “Funky and the Champ” show with Ben Askren. “I think for the next year, Sean O’Malley needs to be in a wrestling gym to try to learn how to defend because if he can defend takedowns at the rate that Umar did …”
That led to Cormier’s co-host Ben Askren to ask what would happen if O’Malley lost to Dvalishvili again.
“You’re screwed,” Cormier said. “He’s kind of in that same position as Jiri (Prochazka). Jiri was talking about how good (he is) – you know, he’s ready to fight (Alex) Pereira again, and I’m like, ‘I don’t think I have seen many changes.'”
O’Malley had his best moment against Dvalishvili in Round 5 when he hurt him to the body with a kick. Cormier says he only sees “The Machine” losing in one way.
“It seems like the only way to beat him is by completely shutting out the lights, because as long as he’s up and walking, he’s going to continue to press you and try to chase you down to get you,” Cormier said. “What he does is every second of the fight, he is just attacking your will til eventually you start going, ‘Man, do I really have what I have to have in order to get through this dude?'”
