Merab
Dvalishvili coach John Wood believes Sean
O’Malley will mentally break faster than he will
physically.
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Dvalishvili gets his long-awaited bantamweight title shot against
O’Malley in the main event at UFC
306 on Sept. 14 at the Sphere in Las Vegas. While Dvalishvili
has previously vowed to knock O’Malley out, Wood has a more
realistic prediction for the fight. The Syndicate MMA head coach
believes Dvalishvili will take over after the second stanza,
applying his signature pressure to eventually rope in a unanimous
decision win. Wood also believes that getting to “Sugar” mentally
will be easier than breaking him physically.
“A smart man’s bet? I would say five-round unanimous decision
Merab,” Wood recently told Red Corner MMA. “I think we take control
after the second and it’s all gas with Merab, but it’s gonna be
technical gas. And I think we put the kind of pressure on Sean that
he just can’t deal with. Not that he can’t deal with – physically
breaking him is gonna be hard, but mentally I think we can get
there. And I think Merab will grind this fight out in a five-round
decision.”
Wood also praised Dvalishvili for being a highly coachable fighter.
According to the former middleweight fighter, Dvalishvili
implements his teachings well in each fight, although it might
initially appear that “The Machine” isn’t processing it well. And
Wood says the proof of that lies in the Georgian’s recent wins over
top-tier opponents.
“He learns very good and he listens very good,” Wood said. “It’s
funny because we’ll be in the room, and I’ll be teaching him
something, we’re working in private and it doesn’t seem like he’s
getting it. The very next day he’ll do it perfect live. You’ve to
kind of learn to teach things, but he’s a guy that will do what you
tell him to do. Also too, because it’s been proven for the last few
fights, he’s had easier times with harder opponents now in each
fight for the last three or four fights.”
Currently riding a 10-fight winning streak, Dvalishvili’s last
three wins have come via dominant unanimous decisions over former
champs Henry
Cejudo, Petr Yan and
Jose Aldo.