Ahead of his clash against Merab Dvalishvili this Saturday at UFC 316, Sean O’Malley has been offered some expert advice by current featherweight king, Alexander Volkanovski.
On Saturday, Sean O’Malley will get his chance at redemption when he takes on Merab Dvalishvili in the UFC 316 main event in Newark, New Jersey.
‘Suga’ is set to come into UFC 316 with a different look as he revealed he wouldn’t be dying his hair as he usually does, explaining why he is opting against it.
Ahead of their rematch, O’Malley’s head coach has predicted that the striker will cut Dvalishvili’s face open before scoring a late round finish.
Volkanovski offers O’Malley expert advice ahead of UFC 316 rematch
In their first clash at UFC 306, ‘The Machine’ Dvalishvili dominated the fight with his wrestling and grappling pressure, not allowing O’Malley to land any of his sensational striking.
Despite that, in the final round O’Malley landed a few crushing body shots and just days out from their rematch, Dvalishvili has admitted that if he landed a few more, the result of the fight could be different.
Although ‘Suga’ went into UFC 306 with a torn labrum, the wide consensus is that Dvalishvili will once again dominate the 30-year-old with his relentless pressure.
However, the current UFC featherweight champion, Alexander Volkanovski, has offered O’Malley some advice, stemming from his fights against Islam Makhachev, who is also known for his dominant grappling.
“The fight should look exactly the same, right? That’s what you’d think, the fight should look exactly the same,” Volkanovski said in a video on his YouTube channel.
“Are we gonna see a different Sean? Yeah, I think we will. The key factor for him is the ability to not worry and hesitate and care about the takedowns. Worry about that when it comes… Game plan around letting him even come in, make that a part of your style.
“If you’re really worried about that takedown, you’re not gonna be as free on the feet and we know how good Sean O’Malley is when he’s free on the feet, I think he’s one of the best strikers in the UFC, he’s incredible on the feet,” Volkanovski continued.
Merab Dvalishvili admits he’d never fight Alexander Volkanovski
Fighters attempting to become double champions has become an extremely regular occurrence in the UFC.
However, ‘The Machine’ has admitted he has no plans of ever moving up to featherweight, despite his brutal bantamweight weight cut taking a lot out of him, because he doesn’t ever want to fight Volkanovski.