A top 15 bantamweight believes that Sean O’Malley now has a better chance of beating the current champion heading into their rematch.
O’Malley has claimed that several factors impacted his first fight with Merab Dvalishvili at UFC 306 last September.
While the Georgian looks to improve on his performance in their first encounter, with Dvalishvili planning to strike more with O’Malley, there are some positives that ‘Suga’ can take from his last outing.
Many saw the fight as being relatively one-sided in favor of the challenger but this wasn’t reflected by all of the scorecards or the way that the bout ended.
Dan Hardy recently highlighted the success that O’Malley had in the closing moments on September 14 with Aiemann Zahabi sharing a similar breakdown of the matchup.
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Aiemann Zahabi says that Sean O’Malley hurting Merab Dvalishvili to the body could change everything in the rematch
In an exclusive interview with Bloody Elbow, Aiemann Zahabi broke down the rematch between Sean O’Malley and Merab Dvalishvili.
The Canadian contender stated before his fight with Jose Aldo at UFC 315, which he won to earn the #11-ranking at 135 pounds, that O’Malley has a better chance of winning in the rematch.
Zahabi believes that the body shot which hurt Dvalishvili in the fifth and final round changes a lot of the narrative ahead of UFC 316.
He said that this opens up a lot of questions regarding what happens if ‘Suga’ is able to damage the champion with a similar strike earlier on in the fight.
Dvalishvili has won his last 12 fights but Zahabi thinks that O’Malley might have uncovered something that the Georgian’s former opponents weren’t able to capitalize on.
“In round five, when he teeped him to the body, Merab was running. He was hurt, man. I think he’s great, he’s world champion for a reason but, if Sean O’Malley’s team can find a way to attack him to the body earlier, weaken him to the body.
“You know, we’ve seen other champions lose getting hurt to the body, getting tired early. Maybe he can’t wrestle as good if he gets beat up to the body. Maybe Sean found something that we didn’t know, that we didn’t figure out before. So, if his team can build a game plan around hurting him to the body, not getting taken down, there’s a chance… I think there’s more of a chance than the first time around.”
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Aiemann Zahabi says that Sean O’Malley feels like the A-side in UFC 316 rematch
When giving his reaction to this matchup being booked, Aiemann Zahabi said that it makes Sean O’Malley look like the A-side heading into UFC 316.
Some fans were surprised to see this rematch get put together because ‘Suga’ hasn’t fought since he lost the title at UFC 306.
A combination of the success that O’Malley had in the fifth round and his injury issues heading into the fight gives the rematch some interesting narratives, but Zahabi couldn’t overlook that Dvalishvili feels like the challenger once again.
“I find it odd because it makes it seem like Merab is the challenger because after he beat Sean, Merab went on to fight again and risked his title… If he would have lost to Umar [Nurmagomedov], it would be weird that Sean gets a title fight, right? Wouldn’t that be weird? So it’s kind of like for me, as somebody who watches UFC, the UFC does what they want. They make it make sense.”