September’s MMA schedule revolves around the 14th, UFC 306 at The Sphere in Las Vegas, and the bantamweight world title fight between flashy champion Sean O’Malley and dominant wrecking ball Merab Dvalishvili.
Whilst UFC Noche will undoubtedly be Merab Dvalishvili’s toughest test to date in the octagon, his coaches are seeing a multitude of different ways in which the Georgian wrestler can secure the 135lb title.
Merab Dvalishvili’s coach previews gameplan for UFC 306 title fight
Speaking to Red Corner MMA, coach John Wood explained how because Sean O’Malley is such an outstanding specialist when it comes to the striking element of MMA, the gameplan from Dvalishvili and his team needs to be as airtight as possible.
“The margin for error in this fight is very small, we’re fighting a specialist who is a sniper when it comes to striking but he’s also very well-rounded at everything else – he’s not just a striker, he can grapple and he’s a legit jiu-jitsu wrestler and the dude knows how to fight.”
Whilst Dvalishvili himself would love the opportunity to secure the title with a knockout, coach Wood understands changing The Machine’s blueprints so late into the game is a sure-fire way to get knocked out himself.
“I never want to overlook what got Merab to the dance or what brought Merab into this title fight. We have to keep those things in check but not lose ourselves like ‘Oh, we need to learn traditional boxing or striking to compete with O’Malley’ because that’s how we are going get knocked out.
“Merab is a crazy man, we just start to make him a technical crazy man.”
So, what is the gameplan? As is to be expected, the veteran trainer refused to give away any of the camp’s key secrets so close to the title fight going down on September 14, but he did note that a core part of their strategy will be putting O’Malley on the backfoot.
“We have never seen Sean get pressured enough to where he breaks, but when you do start to pressure him there is a level of, you know, he does get a little tired but he’s very composed. He’s a world champion for a reason so it’s not like you pressure Sean and he just goes to s***.
“But if Merab can do Merab, and here’s the deal: We’ve got guys here who are world-class strikers, we’ve got guys who are on the level of sniping just like O’Malley. I’m not saying they are O’Malley, but we’ve got a lot of guys who can emulate that [style].”
On the flip side of the UFC 306 contest, Wood believes that whilst they’ve brought in strikers similar to ‘Suga’, there’s nobody that the champion can bring in to help prepare for the chaotic nature of Dvalishvili.
“I don’t think that anybody out there can emulate what Merab does and the chaos he brings… So, Sean’s very good and there’s very few holes but there’s things that we can capitalize on that we will capitalize on.”
Dana White says Merab used ‘bush shears’ to cut out his own stitches
Sean O’Malley vs Merab Dvalishvili is the star attraction of the ‘once in a lifetime’ PPV at The Sphere, although there were some serious concerns only last week that the bout could be scrapped.
This, after Dvalishvili posted a video showing off a nasty cut that he’d sustained in training over his eye, prompting Dana White himself to label the decision to share the injury as “dumb”.
Yet that’s far from where the ‘cut chaos’ ended, with Dvalishvili later sharing another video in which he snipped out the stitches himself using a rather large pair of scissors – certainly not something that any trained medical professional would recommend.
“Isn’t he awesome? I think he’s just f****** with me now, to be honest with you,” White told reporters after last week’s episode of Dana White’s Contender Series.
“Do what you want. Have you ever seen the scissors they take stitches out with? They’re tiny, and they have that thing on there, so you don’t cut yourself.
“They can slide them up under the stitches, and you don’t cut yourself, and this dude had f****** bush shears that he was using, that you trim your f****** bushes with, that gardeners use… Whatever, good for him.”
O’Malley vs Dvalishvili goes down live from The Sphere on September 14.