Unreal or uninspired?
Sean O’Malley vs. Merab Dvalishvili are set to rematch at UFC 316 next month (Sat., June 7, 2025) inside Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey. And “Suga” head coach, Tim Welsh, is excited to see how his fighter does without the glare and the distractions of The Sphere, where O’Malley vs. Dvalishvili 1 went down.
In a new interview with ESPN, Welsh suggested the LED-covered venue threw off O’Malley, leading to a loss in accuracy.
It sucks when that happens, right?
“I rewatched the fight in slow-mo so many times,” Welsh told Brett Okamoto. “There were tons and tons of shots that barely missed by inches that would’ve completely changed the fight, and I think a lot of it had to do with The Sphere and the lighting. And then not only [the hip] injury, I just feel like in our lives that was supposed to happen. It really caused us to truly level up as humans, and looking back, it was really good for us.”
O’Malley has made a big deal of dropping a lot of the social media influencer distractions he’s been a part of to ensure he’s his best self coming into this rematch. We’ll see what kind of effect that has on his output.
As for Dvalishvili? Welsh is expecting the same fighter they faced back in Sept. 2024.
“I’m expecting the same Merab: a guy who’s an expert at winning 25 minutes, getting into positions where he’s doing just enough damage to not get stood up and where it looks like he’s winning to the judges,” Welsh said. “Pinning people on the fence, pinning people in half guard, pinning people on their guard. He’s just an expert at winning 25 minutes.
“I don’t think there’s been a fight that Sean has been as healthy after,” he added. “Like after the fight, there wasn’t a bruise on his body. I think he had a little bruise on his leg, but he felt completely fine. So, Merab’s just an expert at making you tired and getting positions where he can just cook the clock.”
To that point, Welsh revealed they’re working O’Malley’s wrestling tirelessly to ensure he can deal with “The Machine” rather than continue to stack post-fight excuses. That’s something they were unable to do the first time around as “Suga” was hampered by a hip injury.
“We’re preparing for the worst,” Welsh said. “We’re preparing to be stuck on bottom in half-guard. We’re preparing to be against the fence with Merab just grinding on you. We’re preparing for the worst, and last time, we didn’t get to prepare for the worst.”
They’re also preparing for the best Merab, who Welsh touted as the Bantamweight G.O.A.T.
“I don’t really know how you debate that Merab’s not the best of all-time now,” he said. “Just look at his record. Has there ever been a bantamweight who’s beat that many champions in a row? I don’t think there has. So, it’s pretty easy to say that Merab’s the best bantamweight ever right now.”
Sure sounds familiar.
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