In just a few days’ time, UFC bantamweight champion Sean O’Malley defends his title against the surging Merab Dvalishvili; with the consensus opinion being that the bout will play out like your typical ‘Striker vs Grappler’ matchup.
Yet according to former champion Henry Cejudo, the current bantamweight king has been having trouble in training camp – trouble that could have a significant impact on the fight itself on September 14 at The Sphere.
Henry Cejudo claims Sean O’Malley is having issues in training camp
Former UFC champion Henry Cejudo has been embroiled in an ongoing feud with Sean O’Malley for several years, with it typically being ‘Suga’ getting the upper hand thanks to his quick-witted comebacks.
That played out once again this week when O’Malley appeared as a guest on Kamaru Usman and Cejudo’s Pound-4-Pound podcast… For all of about 20 seconds.
The bantamweight king joined the show, only to fire a quick shot at Cejudo, “Hey Henry, how’d you let Aljo take you down so easily, ha ha ha,” before flipping his phone and leaving for training.
Training that according to Cejudo, isn’t going great in one particular area – defensive wrestling.
“I know that Merab is going to get this win, I know a little bit about O’Malley’s fight camp and how it’s been going,” said ‘Triple C’ as he claimed that getting up from the bottom position has been a recurring issue in camp.
“He doesn’t know how to get off the bottom, he’s having trouble – I’ve had three training partners who have gone out there, they’ve all told me the same s***.”
Although Cejudo’s inside scoop should be taken with a heavy pinch of salt, such leaks between camps that share sparing partners wouldn’t be anything new to MMA.
“That’s what happens when you live in the same city,” continued Cejudo: “People know other people who will say s***.”
Whilst O’Malley certainly isn’t known for his defensive wrestling prowess, that isn’t to say that ‘Suga’ isn’t an accomplished grappler; having achieved Brown Belt status in Brazilian Jiu-jitsu and competed in multiple grappling tournaments in recent years.
In fact, looking back at his 13-fight UFC career so far, including Dana White’s Contender Series, Sean O’Malley has only been taken down by four opponents; Petr Yan, Thomas Almeida, Andre Soukhamthath, and Alfred Khashakyan.
Whilst Yan was indeed able to get ‘Suga’ down on six separate occasions, he also failed seven times over the course of their 15-minute contest – even Aljamain Sterling couldn’t get the flashy striker to the floor, going 0-2 on takedowns before being knocked out in the second round.
As per the UFC Stats page, O’Malley retains a 62% average takedown defence, with his UFC 306 opponent Merab Dvalishvili clocking in with a 36% takedown accuracy and averaging 6.43 takedowns per 15 minutes.
Statistics aside, Cejudo still believes that as soon as the cage door closes behind them on Saturday evening, O’Malley’s championship reign is on a countdown clock.
“I think that it’s a match made in heaven for a guy like Merab, he just needs to be careful in those [opening] two rounds but as the fight goes on, I can see Merab Dvalishvili f***** taking him out.”
The former double champion is, unsurprisingly, predicting that O’Malley will lose his bantamweight title this weekend in Las Vegas as he holds out hope of facing ‘Suga’ himself sometime next year.
“Once he loses to Merab, f*** it – the next fight that’s up is me vs him… I am planning on going to flyweight unless, I want to make it public here too, I’ve started my diet and I’m going to do everything right but if there’s one fight, I think a fight between me and Sean O’Smelly-Ronald McDonald makes a lot of sense.
“I hope this m******** loses cause then it’s a showdown between me and him, and you know what, we can settle this in the best way and that’s fighting.”
Sean O’Malley vs Merab Dvalishvili goes down this weekend, live from The Sphere in Las Vegas.