Sean O’Malley has said he will take some time off following his loss to Merab Dvalishvili.
O’Malley suffered the second defeat of his career at UFC 306, as Merab won his UFC Bantamweight Title. Dvalishvili dominated the fight by putting O’Malley on the ground several times to zap his energy.
Suga had no answer, as striking was missing for most parts of the fight. O’Malley hoped this would be the fight that propelled him into bigger stardom since Merab was on a ten-fight win streak.
Sean also drew a comparison between himself and Conor McGregor, saying his stardom had surpassed that of McGregor. Dvalishvili will likely face Umar Nurmagomedov next to decide the best bantamweight of this era. Meanwhile, O’Malley goes back to the drawing board and must decide where he will go next.
Sean O’Malley Reacts
“It’s going to feel good to take a legit break to get fully healthy. It’s going to be nice to take a legit, full-on break without something next. Right after the Aljo fight, I knew I had the Chito fight. Right after the Chito fight, I had the Merab fight. Now after this fight, I don’t have anything. Nothing’s scheduled, no one’s next…I need to get healthy, and that’s it. I’m going to actually heal up from injuries and then take my time, and come back,” O’Malley said
Dvalishvili, in contrast, received mass support from his fans in his country of Georgia. The Georgian also joined UFC Featherweight Champion Ilia Topuria in becoming a big name after the latter knocked out Alexander Volkanovski at UFC 298.
After Dvalishvili emerged victorious, crowds took to the country’s capital, Tbilisi, to celebrate his success. The victory means that Dvalishvili has eleven wins in a row, beating the biggest names such as Jose Aldo, Petr Yan and Henry Cejudo.