UFC bantamweight champion Sean O'Malley expects an early night against Merab Dvalishvili.
O’Malley (17-1 MMA, 10-1 UFC) defends his 135-pound title against Dvalishvili (17-4 MMA, 10-2 UFC) in the UFC 306 main event Sept. 14 at Sphere in Las Vegas.
Dvalishvili’s grappling has posed serious problems for his opposition. He was most recently able to take down Olympic gold medalist Henry Cejudo multiple times at UFC 298. However, O’Malley is certain that Dvalishvili will have a hard time grabbing a hold of him.
“No, I don’t think so. I don’t think he’s going to test my wrestling,” O’Malley told ESPN. “I don’t think he’s going to be able to. Aljo, I guess you could say tested my wrestling a little bit, had me up against the fence twice, didn’t take me down once. I felt like that was a huge win to answer questions about wrestling.
“‘Chito’ (Vera) didn’t even try to take me down once. So that was the cardio question. Never has been five rounds, can he do that? Did it, boom. I don’t think Merab is going to be the one to test my wrestling to be honest. I truly believe I’m going to put his lights out very early.”
What makes O’Malley so confident? “The Suga Show” says he has the accuracy to find anyone’s chin and plans on handing Dvalishvili the same fate as his training partner, Aljamain Sterling.
“Styles, I know I can knock anybody out,” O’Malley said. “I just believe he is going to make – it only takes one mistake. Aljo made a mistake, got his lights put out. ‘Chito’ wasn’t able to put his lights out. Very, very tough dude, but I was able to find his chin quite a bit. I believe if I find Merab’s chin the way I was finding ‘Chito’s’ chin, the way I found Aljo’s chin, I’m going to get him out of there.”
For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 306.
