UFC bantamweight number one contender, Merab Dvalishvili, recently revealed that he surprisingly plans to stand and strike with champion, Sean O’Malley, when they finally meet in the Octagon.
Since his title defense against Marlon Vera earlier this year, Sean O’Malley‘s next title defense has been known to come against Merab Dvalishvili, however, the date is still yet to be set.
The bout is rumored to be headlining the UFC 306 event coming on September 14, and with it building up to be the biggest event in combat sports history, ‘Suga’ may be a worthy name to headline.
Merab Dvalishvili claims he will stand and strike with O’Malley
Despite being most well-known for his impenetrable gas tank and dominant wrestling, ‘The Machine’ recently revealed that he plans to stand and strike with the 135lb champion, despite ‘Suga’s’ clear advantage in that area.
The last time the Georgian scored a finish was back in 2019 against Marlon Moraes, but even then, the finish came as a result of ground-and-pound.
Dvalishvili’s last true knockout win came against former Bellator champion, Raufeon Stots, and it came when UFC CEO, Dana White, went to go and see him compete for an episode of ‘Dana White Lookin’ For A Fight’.
“What’s going to happen is now I’m going to show everybody my striking. Yeah, I have wrestling, but now I want to prove my striking. And I want to punch his face because he thinks I’m going to wrestle him. No, I’m going to punch him,” Merab told the Believe You Me Podcast.
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Sean O’Malley responds to Dvalishvili’s claim that he will strike with him
The 33-year-old’s teammate, Aljamain Sterling, took a similar approach to O’Malley in their fight at UFC 292, and of course that ended devastatingly for ‘Funkmaster’.
Despite ‘The Machine’s’ claim, the 29-year-old champion doesn’t truly believe he will stand and strike with him, considering his terrifying knockout power.
“I honest to God, think Merab is as dumb as he looks, and he looks really f****** dumb, that I think he might try to a little bit, but it’s like, dude, my entire career I’ve been training for people that are going to strike with me and then they try to take me down, so,” O’Malley responded on the latest episode of The Timbo and Sugar Show.
The champion went on to claim that regardless of what game plan Dvalishvili comes into the fight with, ‘he’s getting knocked out regardless’.
Although their fight hasn’t been officially booked for UFC 306, O’Malley has begun training camp, just in case the promotion decides to have him main event the card.
“I just feel like there’s nothing really he’s going to be able to do (to beat me). I’m going to try and sleep him the exact same time I slept Aljo (Aljamain Sterling). I’m gonna try and time it. That’s my goal,” O’Malley admitted.