Sean O’Malley claims that UFC bantamweight champion Merab Dvalishvili is avoiding a fight with Umar Nurmagomedov, despite having several potential challengers lined up, including Petr Yan and O’Malley himself, who is recovering from hip surgery.
Sean O’Malley sees a lot of possibilities for Merab Dvalishvili. Interestingly, he suspects the UFC bantamweight champ is dodging one particular fighter.
Dvalishvili snagged the title from O’Malley at UFC 306 last September. Everyone thought Umar Nurmagomedov, undefeated and sitting pretty at No. 2 in the MMA Fighting Global Rankings, would be next in line. But, plot twist! Dvalishvili seems hesitant to pick Nurmagomedov as his next opponent. Rumors flew about Nurmagomedov facing Song Yadong instead, but that match never happened.
On his podcast, the TimboSugarShow, O’Malley threw some shade at Dvalishvili. He claimed it’s actually Dvalishvili who’s scared.
“Umar wants to fight Merab in January,” O’Malley said. “Petr [Yan] wants to fight Merab in March. I want to fight Merab in April.” He didn’t hold back, saying, “Merab is absolutely shitting himself terrified of Umar.”
And then there’s Petr Yan. Remember him? He got dominated by Merab with a 50-45 score. Brutal.
O’Malley brought up Yan’s impressive win over Deiveson Figueiredo at UFC Macau last Saturday. Both O’Malley and Yan are former bantamweight champs who lost unanimously to Dvalishvili earlier this year.
Dvalishvili gave props to Yan after his victory over Figueiredo, even hinting at a rematch at UFC 313 in March.
Interestingly, Dvalishvili also mentioned wanting another go with O’Malley. But that’s unlikely now since O’Malley’s recovering from hip surgery.
Eager to get back into action, O’Malley’s still not fully training yet. “I can’t wrestle yet,” he admitted. “I can move around, hit mitts a bit, shadow box… but grappling? Nope.”
He’s hoping to start drilling in about three weeks. Meanwhile, he’s focusing on taking care of himself and getting back into shape without aggravating his injury further.