UFC President Dana White reacts to Sean O’Malley’s surprisingly gun-shy performance in Las Vegas, noting that the flashy striker looked ‘flat’ in the face of Dvalishvili’s relentless pressure.
Despite having some success to the body in the latter stages of the fifth round, ‘And New’ never really looked in doubt last night in Las Vegas as Georgian wrecking ball Merab Dvalishvili dominated and dethroned ‘Suga’ to claim UFC gold at The Sphere.
Sean O’Malley drops UFC bantamweight belt in one-sided title fight
A ‘once in a lifetime’ MMA show was promised; a ‘once in a lifetime’ show was delivered at UFC 306; however, the night ended on a decidedly dull note as both title challengers outpointed their way to hearing ‘And New’ in two rather stale fights.
In the main event especially, Sean O’Malley failed to pull the trigger on more than one occasion, and even when he did hurt Merab Dvalishvili late into the fifth round, it was far too late to make a dent in The Machine’s score total.
The judge’s scorecards ultimately read 49-46, 48-47, and 48-47 in favor of the Georgian wrestler, with both Dana White and O’Malley admitting that the performance from the champ wasn’t good enough under the 360-lights of The Sphere.
Dana White reacts to Sean O’Malley vs Merab Dvalishvili at UFC 306
Speaking at the post-fight press conference, UFC President Dana White was asked whether he thought Sean O’Malley left too little too late; with round five being the only round that all three judges scored for ‘Suga’.
“I don’t disagree with you, he looked flat,” acknowledged White, adding how O’Malley “didn’t look sharp [and] he didn’t look crisp until the last round.
“He hurt him with the body shot, he knew that he’d hurt him with the body shot and he kept going in trying to finish but yeah, I looked at the punch stats [and] it was like six in a couple of those rounds.”
As per the official UFC stats, Sean O’Malley landed just 47 significant strikes over the 25 minutes; landing only 5 significant strikes in the second and 6 in the fourth – he failed to land more than 14 shots in any of the five rounds.
Despite the trigger-shy performance, White doesn’t believe that the scale of the Noche UFC event got to O’Malley, who often shines when the spotlights are brightest.
“I think that he’s one of those kids who lives for moments like this, this is what he’s all about… He’s that guy but I don’t know if he just got in there tonight and felt flat, some nights it’s just it is what it is.”
O’Malley himself has also posted to his social media in response to the defeat, writing on X: “Over promised under delivered. Sorry. Love you guys.”
Only a few hours later, he posted a short video to his Instagram showing him practicing takedown defense with the caption “Back to work.”
Dvalishvili’s next title fight is expected to be against Umar Nurmagomedov, with O’Malley quick to be called out by both boxer Devin Haney and former champion Henry Cejudo.