Merab
Dvalishvili doesn’t like the new, polite version Sean
O’Malley.
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Dvalishvili took O’Malley’s bantamweight title via a dominant
unanimous decision at UFC
306 in September 2024. The two seemingly had some bad blood
leading up to the fight, although no one crossed any limits.
Dvalishvili also openly voiced his dislike for O’Malley’s coach,
Tim
Welch, even calling him out for barking instructions to “The
Machine” mid-fight.
However, O’Malley and his corner have seemingly buried the hatchet
with Dvalishvili. O’Malley recently called Dvalishvili a “nice guy”
while expressing gratitude for making him a better fighter and
human being by defeating him.
“Merab’s a nice guy, he really is… I’ll forever be grateful for
Merab in the sense that he beat me, made me become not just a
better fighter, a better human,” O’Malley said. “Losing is a weird
thing.”
However, Dvalishvili would rather have “Suga” trash talking like
old times as they head into their rematch.
“Cut it out [motherf—ers] go back to talking s—t. I need to be mad
about you again,” Dvalishvili wrote on Instagram.
Dvalishvili defended his title against Umar
Nurmagomedov at UFC 311
this past January to extend his winning streak to 12. Meanwhile,
O’Malley hasn’t fought since losing his title, which he will try to
reclaim against Dvalishvili in the main event at UFC 316
on June 7 at the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey.