Sean O’Malley received a possible roadmap to beating Merab Dvalishvili from a surprising source.
UFC bantamweight champion Merab Dvalishvili will meet former titleholder Sean O’Malley for the second time in less than a year at UFC 316 this summer. Their rematch comes just months after Dvalishvili dethroned O’Malley to win the belt by unanimous decision at UFC 306 last September.
Despite other bantamweights in the mix for a title shot, the UFC matchmakers vied for O’Malley to get a second shot at Dvalishvili for a chance at championship redemption. O’Malley hasn’t competed since their first fight, while Dvalishvili defended the bantamweight title at UFC 311 against the previously unbeaten Umar Nurmagomedov.
As O’Malley plots his strategy for the Dvalishvili rematch, one of his top bantamweight colleagues laid out a detailed strategy for him to possibly follow for the best chance at winning.
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Cory Sandhagen believes Sean O’Malley should use unorthodox approach for UFC 316
During a recent appearance on the MightyCast podcast, UFC bantamweight contender Cory Sandhagen suggested what O’Malley needs to do to beat Dvalishvili.
“O’Malley’s real shot at winning this thing is a puncher’s chance, kind of,” Sandhagen said. “O’Malley’s ability to get up was really bad in their first fight with Merab. He was doing steps where….there’s better ways to stand up than the ways he was going about doing it…O’Malley’s going to get taken down a lot, and hopefully he learned how to stand up a lot better, because getting taken down is going to happen. When you’re a long, lanky guy, it’s hard to stop people from getting underneath you. So it’s not so much about defending the shot as it is, can I get up immediately? And if Sean does that a lot better, he’ll do a lot better in the next fight…
“Sean’s not really a point guy, he’s not going to score a bunch of picks from the outside and try to win that way. O’Malley wants to put your lights out…and if he just continues to try to put Merab’s lights out, I think it’ll weigh against him. I think he really needs to control the pace of the fight, the scoring piece of the standup so that if he does get taken down and he gets back up, he can start to engage…
Sandhagen was then pressed on whether or not O’Malley should hunt for the knockout punch, or take a more methodical approach at UFC 316.
“I don’t think the answer to beating Merab is a ton of footwork and keeping space, I think O’Malley’s a lot longer…Umar tried it and O’Malley tried it the first time…that’s a way to do it, but when a guy has a massive gas tank that’s just like a superhero, I think that you just set your space and when Merab gets close to you, you hit that fool,” Sandhagen said. “And that sounds really simple and maybe not the most technical way, but I do think that’s a way to combat the conditioning piece…he doesn’t have to bring it to Merab, he just has to just try to counter him but not counter and reset a thousand times…he just has to stand there, defend the shots the best he can, and when Merab gets close to him, just hit him.”
Sandhagen is one of the brightest minds in the UFC, as evidenced by his creativity in the cage in recent wins over Song Yadong and Rob Font. He headlines UFC Des Moines this Saturday against former flyweight champ Deiveson Figueiredo.
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Cory Sandhagen frustrated about not facing his longtime idol in the UFC
As Sandhagen prepares for his return this weekend, he has massive regrets about not facing one legendary name inside the Octagon. Former UFC bantamweight champion Dominick Cruz announced his retirement earlier this year, after withdrawing from his retirement fight at UFC Seattle due to injury.
In the lead-up to UFC Des Moines, Sandhagen tabbed Cruz as the one fighter he wished he had a chance to scrap with during his legendary career. Cruz, after ending his fighting tenure, is focused full-time on his MMA analyst work with the UFC broadcasting team.
Sandhagen could potentially earn a bantamweight title shot with an impressive performance this weekend. After a potential win this weekend, Sandhagen is keeping a keen eye on the Dvalishvili vs. O’Malley rematch.