Sean
O’Malley is well aware of the fact that some in the MMA
community are less than pleased that he’s been granted an immediate
rematch against Merab
Dvalishvili.
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“Suga” lost the bantamweight title to Dvalishvili via clear-cut
unanimous decision at UFC 306 this past September. O’Malley has
been sidelined since then as he recovers from a hip surgery he
underwent after that bout. Meanwhile, Dvalishvili successfully
defended the strap against Umar
Nurmagomedov at UFC 311
in January.
On Tuesday, UFC CEO Dana White announced that the
Dvalishvili-O’Malley 2 would headline UFC 316
in Newark, New Jersay on June 7.
“The rematch is official,” O’Malley said on his YouTube channel.
“‘Suga’ Sean vs. Merab 2 is happening, and I don’t think people are
going to be too happy about it.”
While the booking was met with a lukewarm reception, O’Malley
expects to be at full capacity now that the issues with his hip
have been addressed.
“Last fight camp, every single journal entry was like, ‘My groin
kept me up at night’ because I tore my labrum 10 weeks before the
fight,” O’Malley said. “I tore my groin labrum and I was having
serious groin pain …It wasn’t ideal. I was able to train. I was
able to tough through it, but obviously it’s not ideal to go into a
fight, especially against a f—ing murderer—well, not a murderer —
but a stud, an absolute machine.
At UFC 306, O’Malley struggled to pull the trigger offensively
against Dvalishvili for the majority of the fight. His most
memorable moment came in the final frame, when he appeared to hurt
his Georgian opponent with a series of front kicks. However, if
camp goes according to plan, the ex-champ believes things could
look quite a bit different this time around.
“If I can just keep this pace up, how we’ve been able to train the
last few weeks, all the way up to the fight, I’m going to be 70
percent better than I was in that first fight,” he said. “I’m going
to be significantly more mobile, agile, better shape. I’m going to
fight at my full potential. Whereas my last fight, I was very happy
with how I was able to perform considering how I felt. It wasn’t
ideal, the outcome, I didn’t win, but I also think I wasn’t
supposed to win. This rematch was supposed to happen. It’s going to
make this win that much more crazy.”
In addition to better health, O’Malley revealed that he has made
some other significant changes in his life ahead of UFC 316. That
includes cutting out social media, masturbation, gaming and smoking
marijuana.
“I feel like a lot of things that have changed in my life are going
to attribute to my performance,” O’Malley said.
For O’Malley, self-confidence will also play a big role in his
ability to regain bantamweight gold.
“Literally just self-belief — that’s what got me to where I’m at
right now. That’s what’s going to get me to win that next fight is
self-belief, because I know I’m going to be a huge underdog,”
O’Malley said. “Everyone is going to count me out, just like the
[Aljamain
Sterling] fight. One of my favorite moments is when Dana
[White] after the fight asked all the media, there was 30 or 40
people, ‘Who in here thought Sean was going to win the fight?’ One
person [from] Montana raised their hand. This is going to be the
same thing. No one is going to expect me to go out there and do
what I’m capable of doing.”