MMA Fighting - UFC 316 Timeline: Merab Dvalishvili vs. Sean O'Malley

Episode Date: June 4, 2025

Before Merab Dvalishvili and Sean O'Malley battle in a UFC bantamweight championship rematch at UFC 316, check out the roads each fighter took to Saturday's main event matchup. Follow Mike Heck: ⁠⁠@mikeheck_jr⁠⁠ Follow E. Casey Leydon: ⁠⁠@ekc⁠ ⁠Subscribe:⁠⁠⁠ http://goo.gl/dYpsgH⁠⁠ Check out our full video catalog: ⁠⁠http://goo.gl/u8VvLi⁠⁠ Visit our playlists:⁠⁠ http://goo.gl/eFhsvM⁠⁠ Like MMAF on Facebook: ⁠⁠http://goo.gl/uhdg7Z⁠⁠ Follow on Twitter: ⁠⁠http://goo.gl/nOATUI⁠⁠ Read More: ⁠⁠http://www.mmafighting.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

You're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network. MMA fighting presents Timeline. Maraud de Wallis Willie versus Sean O'Malley 2. December 1st, 2017. The Ultimate Fighter 26th finale, Las Vegas, Nevada. The 8-0, Sean O'Malley, makes his official UFC debut as the co-main event opposite Terri-on-Ware. O'Malley wins by decision.

December 9th, 2017. UFC Fight Night 123, Swanson versus Ortega, Fresno, California. The 7-2 Marav DeWallish-Willi makes his ultimate fighting championship debut against Frankie Signs. DeWalish Willie loses by split decision. March 3, 2018. UFC 222. Cyborg versus Kunitskaya, Las Vegas, Nevada. In only a second fight in the UFC, the unranked O'Malley is booked on the main card of a pay-per-view.

against Andre Sukumtah. Oh, Sugar Sean O'Malley and Andre Sukumtad. And there you see Andre Sukumtad, very upset, very fired up. He pushed Sean O'Malley's hand away. Sean O'Malley flips him off. Paperview, your pay-per-view debut, after two fights in the UFC, officially you had the one on the Dana White Show. Does this feel any different?

This feels better. Feels more real. I like it. I love it. I'm ready. And you're getting a bit of a push. You're on embedded. They moved you up.

Are you feeling the love overall despite the no workout? I'm feeling, yeah, the love from the UFC. I'm definitely feeling the hate from the fans. They don't like the push I'm getting, but what do you, I mean, the kind of hate you yet? A lot of the, I've seen a couple guys saying, why are they pushing this kid? Um, I'm 9 and 0, seven finishes. I do stuff other people don't do. I look a certain way.

You know, people are attracted to me. They want to see me fight. I give them good contact to push, so they're pushing me and it's, They're pushing me and it's, you know, it's going to pay off. I also understand you're a huge fan of hummus. Is that correct? I do love hummus. Hummus is fantastic, right?

Yeah, I like hummus. Is there a specific kind that you like? It's the original or do you like bell, pepper hummus? I like that. I like all. I actually ate it so much, kind of got sick of it for a little bit. Okay. Just with anything.

Yeah. But yeah, hummus is good. Wow, okay. How do you rate Sean O'Malley right now? Like, where do you put him as far as like Uber prospect on the cut? Like, how do you rate him? He's a good prospect. Okay.

I don't want people to get. get ahead of it, ahead of themselves because that tends to be what happens when these fighters show up on these UFC produced shows, and especially when Dana White gets behind a guy, it can, they push people too quick and people are so fast to jump off and, you know, I guess what I'm trying to say is people are so fast to lay in weight and at the first side of weakness, people will criticize, you know, this guy shouldn't have been getting all this hype, that type of thing. Sean O'Malley is a good prospect. He's not a, he's not a blue chip. incredible prospect, but he's a good young prospect who's going to be an exciting, interesting

fighter in this division for a long time, and I think we should be okay with that. How do you feel about this matchup? Sukumptat's a tough guy, and he's coming off a nice win over Luke Sanders. What do you think about this fight for him? It's a tough one, man. They're certainly not doing him any favors. If they're trying to build up Sean O'Malley, this is not the fight I would book. Andre Sukumptan.

It was a mistake. I think so. I mean, Andre Sukumtad could easily be 3 and 0 in the UFC. He lost two split decisions, and the second of which was extremely controversial. he's a very talented fighter and he's a very experienced fighter. This is not an easy fight. And he's a very upset fighter. He's all kinds of fired up here.

So are you calling for the upset here? I don't know. That's not an upset. Okay, he's the betting favorite. I was just gonna ask you, okay, interesting. Yeah, Sean O'Malley opened as a pretty decent favorite and that has completely swung in the other direction. Okay, so are you going with those guys?

Are you picking Andre? I think I'm gonna pick Sean just because I, speaking to- After all that. After all that, speaking to him, he's very confident and his coach Tim Welch is very confident that they have, isolated, very specific holes in Andre's game that they can exploit. And Sean O'Malley, the one thing that impressed me the most about his debut against Terriam Ware was not sort of the flashiness and all of this that he brought.

It was the fact that he was able to stay in there and he got a second win in his UFC debut. There didn't seem to be these Octagon jitters. He faded a little bit in the second round, but in the third round he continued to come hard and he sort of came back alive. That impressed me the most out of anything. And I'm going to pick Sean, but I think this is not an easy fight at all. And I would not be surprised at Vonjay. Yeah, boy, does the UFC need a character like,

him, right? I mean, what a breath of fresh air in the Reebok era to have a guy who, the way he was dressing yesterday, who just cares about, you know, marketing himself and being different, being unique. So we'll see what happens. O'Malley narrowly takes a decision victory despite a serious leg injury occurring

during the third round. So let's talk about Sean O'Malley. What a performance. The Sugar Show rolls on and it looked great early on. The first round was phenomenal. Arguably a 10-8. Andre Sukumptide comes back a little stronger, second round. Seems like he has him in a lot of trouble after Sean O'Malley landed a kick that injured his foot.

Doesn't capitalize on it, Andre Sukumtad. I mean, it seemed like all he had to do was get him to stand up, and he would win this fight via TKO because Sean O'Malley couldn't stand up. In fact, after the fight, he couldn't even stand to do the post-fight interview. It was one of the more memorable post-fight interviews because he's literally lying on his back talking to Joe Rogan. Yes, and talking about how the medicine he will receive at his post-fight party is going to help him. You know, it was endearing. It was entertaining, but it just went to show that maybe Andre Sukumtat let an opportunity

slip through his fingers, right? Oh, absolutely. I mean, you don't want to pile on a fighter when he's down, but that was one of the most puzzling, I mean, one of the most poor fight IQs that I've ever seen in a fighter, maybe not ever, but at least in recent memory, man, like you said, if Andre Sukumtah just stands up and walks to the other side of the cage and is, hey, come on. Like that fight might be over at that point, right? Like there were portions where Sean O'Malley was just hopping on one leg.

And Andre didn't recognize it or I don't know what, but why take him down there? It makes no sense. You know you're down on the scorecards. It was a baffling decision. But in a way, I almost feel like it, obviously Sean O'Malley doesn't want to get injured. And so that's not positive. But if he would have knocked out Andre Sukumatov at the end of that first round or submitted him with any of those submissions in the second round, I feel like he almost doesn't get as much shine.

as he ended up getting just for gritting this out, man. Like he was fighting basically half a round on one leg. And he won the fight. Like, that's incredible. Both guys deserve a lot of credit because the first round for Sukumpta didn't go all that well. And he took a lot of big shots. I know that Sean O'Malley was criticized after his debut,

his official UFC debut back in December, the win over Tarion Ware. This time, though, finish or not, he's getting the street credit for, you know, gutting it out. But overall, are you happy with the performance? Are you happy because there were a lot of people who thought this may have been a little too soon for him?

Absolutely, but it was the first round in particular was very impressive. Just the patience and the creativity that Sean O'Malley was displaying as a striker, the fluidity. It's a joy to watch him, you know, sort of compete. Even on the ground, he's launching him like spinning strikes on the ground and just going from submission

to submission chaining these grappling techniques. It's, he's a fun fighter to watch. And again, you don't want to push someone too fast, but he does seem like that. a very intriguing prospect and he's a character too which is something in in today's era where reback and everything is so dressed down and everybody looks the same it's nice to just have some of people out there who can still you know have that personality have some uniqueness about them as he's getting carted off uh i mean before they're about to do the interview with joe rogan he's

like smoking like he's like he's smoking a pong and as he's getting carted off on a stretcher outside of a pass press row he's just acting like he's smoking a drone he he's like he's smoking a But he's hilarious, man. I don't know how you could hate that. April 21st, 2018. UFC fight night 128, Barbosa versus Lee, Atlantic City, New Jersey. Marab returns to the cage against the up-and-coming prospect, Ricky Simone. In a historic finish, Simone wins by guillotine at the five-minute mark of the third round,

making it the latest stoppage possible in a three-round fight. The fight is awarded the Fight of the Night $50,000 bonus. September 15th, 2018, UFC Fight Night 136, Hunt v. Olinick, Moscow, Russia. Now O'N2 in his first two UFC fights, Marab is set to face Terry Unwear in Russia. The machine wins by decision and snaps his two-fight skid. This victory would be the catalyst for six straight dominant decision victories over the following three years. Brad Katona at UFC on ESPN Plus 9, I acquit. versus Cowboy in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.

Casey Kenny at UFC on ESPN Plus 25, Anderson v. Blahovich 2 in Rio Rancho, New Mexico. Gustavo Lopez 2, I versus Calvillo in Las Vegas, Nevada. Former title challenger John Dotson at UFC-250, Mietich versus Cormier 3 in Las Vegas. So was that the biggest win of your career? Yes, 100%. That was my fifth win, UFC, and John Datson is a big name. He was two-time title challenger, and I mean, of course, that was a big win in my career, yes.

Did you say on the broadcast you wouldn't be doing construction anymore? Yes, that's true, yes. I was doing construction full-time. Like once I moved USA from Georgia, yeah, of course. I need to job and I started work construction and I was working all this time construction I was training with my team Sarah Longo but even I was training one time night time after work in my gym in in a gym every day we have a great training and that my team made me like this still I was working full-time construction and but training but now I'll be full-time

with Sifiter I will training two times times a day and that's all I love to do fighting, training and do my job. And Cody Stamen at UFC Vegas 25, Reyes v. Brajcca in Las Vegas. March 7th, 2020, UFC 248 Adasagna versus Romero, Las Vegas, Nevada. After two years away from competition, Sean O'Malley returns to face Jose Alberto Kenyonez. Arizona boy. Yeah, as you know, he's coming off this two-year, USADA, turmoil, where it's back and forward.

I spoke with him and he said learning that he had been flagged for a USADA violation was a shot in the heart and the thoughts that I went through his mind were like, do I have to move out of the state? Do I have to like cut people out of my life? Like are people coming in. You were paranoid about, they were so much sabotaging. To say paranoid would be an understatement. Like he was like, I'm just going to move and like just cut everyone out of my life because

I don't know if people put stuff in my drink or not. He seems like, I don't know. I don't want to say he's over it because I don't know if you can ever move on from losing two years of your career. But he seems like those two years I healed up. I got better at my own craft. You put on apparently 10 pounds of muscle to prepare for this fight. So, and to say he's confident, again, like he oozes confidence wherever he goes. Well, also there's a sense of almost, I don't know how to phrase it, but like, carmic reimbursement with him.

Because when I think of Sean O'Malley, going into this week, I assumed like, oh, he has like three fights, four fights, something like that. Now, he is two UFC fights. And neither a opponent is in the UFC anymore. Neither opponent is basically starting anew. But when he's going through all of this USADA stuff, he had to basically pay for a lawyer for two years. And then he had to pay $1,000 per supplement to test 20 different supplements.

He ended up spending so much damn money that he hasn't earned yet. That dude was on an entry-level UFC contract when all of-a-conspirate-a-contract. He's so behind the eight-ball of where we thought he was going to be. The way USADA puts these fighters through making pay for all of this is just disgusting, frankly. This is his time now, man.

Him and Tim Welch, his coach Tim Welch, feel like almost it was better that this happened in some way because he was going to get so much stardom, so much fame, some money, very early on his career. He was 23 years old when all this started happening. It seems like he's gone through a lot of personal evolution, a lot of personal growth. He's 25 now.

He seems to have really up to his jujitsu game, up to his strength, like you said, he's gained some size. But Sugar Sean O'Malley, I think outside of the top two fights, has drummed up the most interest. Like he's on the embedded series, the anatomy of a fighter, he's with the Raptors guys. Like he's doing all these,

like the camera's not been off of him since he got to Las Vegas. Well, it's odd to me because it doesn't feel like he's lost very much momentum. No, not at all. He's been out so long. Like, you can lose momentum

in two weeks in this sport. People forget about you, but it seems like people are still really into Sean O'Malley even though we haven't seen him long time. He's done a phenomenal. I heard him overheard him talking to some other people but during the day.

He goes, he, what he was doing in his office, he was like with his gaming, with like his YouTube channel. Like he made sure. He made sure people didn't forget who he was, but he thinks people forgot how good he is. Like now people look at me and he's like, I'm just like the gamer with like face tattoos and stuff. But like, I'm going to go in there and destroy this man. And then people remember, like Jose Quignonas, we haven't even talked about. I'm going to destroy Jose Quinoes. And then I'm not going to be just this goofy looking gamer.

I'm going to be a legitimate bantam way. So I assume you think sugar shawns going to win after all this. And also you mentioned the face tattoos. You got a new face tattoo. Oh, I am very aware. Because at UFC 222, that was a fake face tattoo. He goes, I'm dumb enough to get a face tattoo, but I'm smart enough to test it to see if it looks dumb.

I'm like, well, you have to be a fight for the rest of life for a gamer because you're not going to get another job with that. I just like the idea of getting a face tattoo on Fight Week. That's ballsy enough. I mean, come on. O'Malley dominates and wins by TKO three minutes into round one. He pitched a perfect game. Jose Quignon is nothing for Shukashon.

And we spoke to him at Media Day, and he's like, and Shugashon, I just know. He had this thing where Israel Asanay and Connor and all these big stars are like, I know what I'm going to do. I envision it, and I'm not even nervous about it. I just know it's going to happen. And he pitched a perfect game.

He said he put on like 10 pounds. He goes, me with tax accounts, the same skill set, that's terrifying. So he's still undefeated. He's going to be a big star in the U.S. He's got the star power. He's 100% is a star power. The difference between a star power

and just a great fighter. I mean, he's a brand. He will be a brand. Look at like Conne McGarger, he's turned his whole stick into a brand. This has that same feel to me. The Sugar Show is going to be alive

and well for a long time for the UFC. Good for him. I'm here for it. The Sugar Show would quickly return to the cage and defeat WEC veteran Eddie Weinland by spectacular one-punch K-O at UFC 250, Cyborg versus Spencer. Yeah, look, this was supposed to be a showcase fight for him.

He's said before the fight, he said after the fight, he's the best strike. He believes he's the best striker. I don't know if he said in all of MMA, but that's certainly the best striker at 135 pounds. And he took out one, one punch walk off, K.O. It was just a perfect moment. I was skeptical, I was not a believer at first, but this guy is rising so fast, absolutely a future star. And based on social media buzz, everyone was talking about it.

Maybe the most talked about fighters today. I think you mentioned you want to go to the negotiating table because you know you're worth right now. There's a couple of fighters that, like Jorge Mazdol and John Jones been very vocal about wanting a bigger slice of the pie, Mazvedal was just on Sports Center, questioning the split between revenues. So what do you make of all this and going into the negotiating table?

Yeah, I think our situation is probably a little different. You know, those guys have had big fights and a lot of fights and big wins. I'm not asking for a lot. Like, literally, what I was asking for is still less than everyone made the night. So I just wanted to be fair. I think the whole week was kind of about the sugar show.

And I was supposed to renegotiate after I knocked out Jose and they wouldn't, you know, it didn't happen. So I don't, and it sucks that it's even, I even have to bring that stuff up and it has to be about money, but it shouldn't have to be. It should be, you know, it should be pretty fair.

I think it should be something that we all agree on. and I definitely just want to get paid what I feel I'm worth. August 15th, 2020, UFC 252, Mia Chich versus Cormier 3, Las Vegas, Nevada. Just two months after his latest knockout victory,

Sean O'Malley is booked as the co-main event for a pay-per-view opposite Marlon Cheeto Vera. Well, it all, say I'm not streaming or doing anything I'm doing, but I'm still knocking people out. That's why I'm in the co-main event spot,

not because I stream. Not because I have a million followers on his three. I'm not because of anything else. It's because I'm knocking people out and putting them, putting their lights out. That's what it is. You knock out, like I knocked out Alfred, made Snoop Doggo crazy. You know, I knock out Jose Quinois. I'm a two-year comeback.

I knock out Eddie, Eddie Weinlin, opening up a big pay-per-view. It's not because I'm doing anything other than knocking people out. O'Malley infamously suffers a leg injury early in round one and eventually loses by TKO, snapping his undefeated. streak at 12 fights. It's unfortunate for Sugar Sean. Young kids, you clearly, like, all the hype in the world. Like, they, they compared him to Luca Donchick, Russell Westbrook, and Lamar Jackson.

Now, for those of you who are watching who don't know who those athletes are, because maybe you don't watch American sports, Luca Donchick is like 21, NBA rookie year, is going to be MVP someday of the NBA. Russell Westbrook is an MVP. Lamar Jackson is an NFL MVP in one of the first. the best quarterbacks and like the future of the NFL. They're comparing Sean O'Malley to those guys. So you know, and that's ESPN.

That's not the UFC. That's Stephen A. Smith saying all that. Like take what you want from Stephen A. Smith. I personally don't care what he has to say. But when he says that you know, at least the world is aware of who Sean O'Malley is. So it's unfortunate that this happened, but I really, really hope it's not a significant injury that we're, I don't want Sean, I don't want 12 more months of Sugar Sean not fighting. I want to see him back in there because I think the world and the sport needs superstars like him in there.

March 27th, 2021, UFC 260, Mietich versus Inganu 2, Las Vegas, Nevada. Sean O'Malley returns to the cage to face all-action fighter Thomas Almeida on the main card of the Apex Pay-Pervue. You know, I've been asked this question so many times, but it's that, you know, they ask me how I feel, whatever. I say, I feel on defeat. I don't feel like I was beat because my skill set wasn't as good as his. um you know it was it was a freak accident how many leg kicks been thrown since that kick to now and how many times does that happen you know so you can't if you would have said i'm going to go in there and kick his nerve and that happened i'd be like damn this motherfucker's good and he is good

good she was good good opponent but i think uh the way that fight ended and you in watching the fight before that happened i was in control of that fight i was doing what i wanted um you know he didn't take me down and elbow me i my leg completely gave out it roll my ankle four or five times and I was still piecing him up on the feet. I backed him down, had him covered up, and I went to step back, and my ankle gave out. So, you know, if he would have beat me in a decision or just beat me in any other way than me getting injured,

I would say I'm 12 in one, no issue. I don't have a problem with losing. I lose in the gym all the time. You know, get up, slap hands, compete again. I don't mind losing them. You know, one of these days I'm going to lose a fight, hopefully not in that kind of fashion. And it's going to be like, yeah, he beat me.

I have no issue losing. You know, I think the whole 12 and 1 Un defeated, mentally undefeated thing has gotten a little crazy, but I do kind of enjoy when people get mad at it now, but also it's just I just answer the questions you guys ask. O'Malley earns a round three knockout and takes home yet another performance of the night bonus.

My shins hurt really bad. Those are my initial thoughts. Is that just from all the kicks you through? Yeah, just all those kicks. my ankle's good, if you guys were wondering. My ankle's good. Well, I was going to ask, was that kind of shimmy walk you did out of the octagon kind of a nod to all the people saying, just kick him in the legs? That was a big fuck you to a lot of people.

I've been getting messed for eight months. I've been having to deal with weak ankles, so it felt good. Sugar Sean would follow this up with a knockoff victory over a late notice and overmatched Chris Mutino at UFC 264, Horier v. McGregor 3. And at UFC 269, Olivera versus Porier, O'Malley would pick up yet another knockout victory over Holi on Piva. To be honest, any time I get in the octagon, I feel like it's going to be a first round knockout because I just feel like anybody I fight is never fought somebody like me. And I know a lot of people say that, but it's just, I think it's true when I stand in there. Piva's never seen someone like me. He's never felt that speed.

So I did see that playing out like that. And I want to thank myself for looking at the clock and seeing how much time was left. Because some people, Daniel Cormier, my last fight, he's like, oh my God, he's looking at the clock. Like, it's like, what are you talking about, dude? Yeah, I'm going to look at the clock. If I didn't look at the clock,

it wouldn't know how much time I have left. I land a big shot. I don't know how much time I got left. I got to know should I empty my tank and try to take this dude out? Or should I wait and then have the rest of the fight, save my energy? You know, so that kind of bugged me

that they kept bringing that. Oh, he looked at the clock. Oh, he looked at the clock. Like, dude's a double champ. Like, you, yeah, what's your IQ? Your fight IQ? Is that not, you know what I'm? You think LeBron James

is going to fucking drive the ball down the court and not look at the clock? It's amateur. You're like D.C.'s getting it from everyone this week. Don't say stupid shit. It's hard, though. That's a hard, hard job. I couldn't do that his job.

I could not sit up there and commentate that many fights and do his job. I would sound like a complete idiot. So, so yeah. O'Malley's momentum would take a pause with a no contest due to an eye poke to Pedro Munoz at UFC 276 Adasania versus Caninear. September 25th, 2021, UFC 266 Volcanovsky versus Ortega, Las Vegas, Nevada. Now riding a six-fight win streak in the UFC,

Marab is set to face former title challenger, the heavy-handed Brazilian Marlon Marais. In a wild back and forth fight, Mara de Valshvili stops Marais by ground and pound late into round two. The victory extends the windstreet of the machine to seven straight fights and earns him his second performance bonus. How close did you feel you were to being knocked out? I got hurt, but you got to kill me to stop me. I'm a warrior and, like, yeah, I just, I survive and I was fighting. and yeah I just I take him down after I was hurt but like not like this you got I tell you you got to kill me to stop me Marabduashvili Mara Rayao Marius was just insane

just a crazy-ass fight congratulations to Maraulis seven wins in a row this guy's a bad bad man and Maraise is a bad bad man too because I mean he was very close to putting that guy away but I don't think barob's human I just don't think he's human and no one's gonna want to fight that dude So, nope. August 20th, 2022, UFC 278, Uspen versus Edwards 2, Salt Lake City, Utah. For the first time in his career,

Marab is booked on the main card of a pay-per-view. He is set to face the all-time featherweight great and now Banimate top contender, Joseo Aldo. This is a tough fight for Jose, though. Like, Marab has the record for most takedowns in a single fight. I can't remember who he did it against, but it was like 13 or 14 takedowns and a single fight. single fight. Everyone says if Al Jermaine wasn't a champion, Marab's the guy that'll probably do well.

Like, there's a reason people are saying that the UFC is keeping him away from Sean O'Malley because he'll just like drop him on his head over and over and over and over and over. He is an exciting fighter. He's like, he's like, you know how people don't like, like? Fans always whining and complain about like, oh, wrestling, he's a grinder. He's a, he's a hesitant wrestler. Marob's wrestling is like Habib's where he just mauls you. for 15 minutes where yeah he's on top of you but you're drowning in a hailstorm of center blocks and that is what marab does so uh this is every definition of the word a high level striker versus a high level wrestler i have absolutely no idea who's going to win don't ask me

i can't make that pick i don't care who wins i just want to see a higher level fight if jos aaldo wins obviously he's next in line for a title shot without question if marob wins it's getting be interesting because he's not going to fight this teammate alzum instilerly wins a controversial decision i am not saying that marab valisvili is a bad fighter he's very very clearly not i'm very highly ranked in my personal rankings i am saying he he did not fight that fight to win that fight he fought that fight to to take judges scorecards and i am also not saying that josaldo fought the best fight of his life but at various points in time he was at least trying to hurt Marab

and I never at any point got the opinion that Marab was trying to hurt Jose my issue with the fight is you could see when it happened like you could see after round one Marab realized I can just spam takedowns and I won't get any of them

because I ain't that dude and Jose is but I can just wall install him and that's fine because I'm going to win when the cards and I would love to look at the stats i know casey hates stats uh i can't imagine a bunch of significant strikes for landed either way but the third round like the third round is a round that i is like told like that is a marab round but that's how you're supposed to do that if you watch the difference between rounds two and three rob does nothing substantively offensive in round two he just grabs a leg pushes al do the

fence and holds on until aldo can break it off and in the third round he actually starts putting putting punches together. He, he hits him a lot. Like, he's, he is effectuating actual offense instead of wall installing. And so if he, he could have done that earlier. He just didn't. And so that's why I scored around for Aldo. And again, a lot of it is, I just hand up, just being butt hurt that Aldo's in this position to lose this stupid fight in this very stupid unappealing way. Like, if, if you're going to beat Jose Max Holloway, like, do something dope. Don't, don't do that. Like, that was just super damn lame.

So. October 22nd, 2022, UFC 280, Olavera versus Mockachev, Abu Dhabi. In a shocking piece of matchmaking, Sean O'Malley is booked to face the top five ranked former world champion,

Piotr Yan. He was the only guy after that Pedro Munoz fight. I went back to the BFC and said, I don't, you know, I want to book a fight. Obviously, that one wasn't a satisfying victory. Peter was literally the only guy in the top 10 without a fight He turned down Cheeto Peter turned down Cheeto so I don't think you really had an option

I think UFC probably went to him and say You can't just keep turning these guys down You have to fight the Shicka Show So I know he was saying he picked that fight I don't believe that I think he got bullied into it I just when I think about having fun I think about knocking someone out

Like I love grappling like it's my favorite training. If I had to go pick what I'm going to do, I'd love to go grapple rather than spa or anything. But when I think of fighting and putting on performances and entertaining, I think of knocking people out. So, I mean, we'll see where the fight goes, but I'd love to knock them out. I mean, I'm the biggest draw in the Bantamweight Division. One of the biggest draws in UFC, I go out there and beat the number one guy. Like, who else would I fight other than for the title? So I kind of already knew that. Hearing it confirmed from Dana. I mean, I already knew that, basically. So it didn't really do do much.

But yeah, I think this is a massive fight. It's obviously not a main event. But this could be a main event. This is a massive fight. There are so many factors going into this. I think a lot of people still feel like Peoria Yon is the best, if not the second best, 1-135 are in the world. We don't even have Sean O'Malley in our rankings on M.M.A.

That's how we think of Sean O'Malley as a website, apparently. We don't think he's a top 15 bench. But the jump in competition here is one of those few things. I can't think of many parallels to the jump in competition that Sean O'Malley is having right now, at least in terms of the modern UFC of the last 10 years. Like we just really don't see this kind of escalation when there haven't been the results to back it up. And that is one thing to me that there's two factors in this fight, right? One is that if this was a five-round fight, I think a lot of people would be feeling much, much, much more confident in picking Peoria on to win this fight.

Because he is historically a very, very slow starter. who gives away the first round, who takes in the first round, downloads information processes, applies it on the fly, and then sort of approaches the rest of the fight with what he's gotten, you can't really give up one of the rounds when there's only three rounds, whereas Sean O'Malley is this incredibly fast starter who gets all these first round knockouts, and he's very dynamic, he's very explosive in this first round, and then we've seen him sort of start to, if not fade, at least get figured out over the course of fights. And so that in and of itself is interesting, right?

this is a three-round fight. If Peor-Dalen's going to do the same thing that he always does, he might lose his first round, then he has to win the next two. Can he do that? Or is he going to switch up his whole strategy and sort of be more aggressive against this guy who's very boisterous and very in his face?

That is interesting, but also just the fact of, you know, like, Sean O'Malley, Sean O'Malley is this guy who, he's been in the, I'm trying to think of a way to phrase, but essentially, like, he has been in the UFC longer than you would think, right? Like, if you just, like, said, hey, hey, Mike, how long has Sean O'Malley been in the UFC? I think a lot of people would say,

oh, he's been in there, maybe like two or three years. Like, he's still an upcoming prospect. We're on year five with Sean O'Malley. We're on year five with Sean O'Malley, and we still have so many unanswered questions with this guy in regards to his ceiling, in regards to what happens when the going gets tough. We have seen twice now things get weird

or, you know, him having to come back from adversity in these fights, once in the Cheeto Vera fight and once in the Pedro Muño's fight. And both those fights ended up in a very strange place, right, he lost one, the other ended up being a no contest. We have not seen Sean O'Malley come back from adversity. We don't know if he has that in him, that dog in him, to be able to not be that front runner, but to mount a come from behind victory to overcome, you know,

whatever is coming his way and then adjust and make the changes on the fly and ultimately come out victorious. We don't know if he has that in him. Whereas Peter Yon's a dog, man, like we know that that dude is ice cold and he absolutely has that in it. And so those kind of questions, I'm really looking forward to see an answer because Peoria is absolutely the type of guy

who's going to bring that on Sean O'Malley and maybe vice versa in that regard. So just the way this Bansomweight Division has shaped up, where we sort of have the stakes with this fight leading into Saturday night, I absolutely love it. We've sort of been calling it around Robb and a Grand Prix style to see who's going to be the next up in line at 135.

And I think we all firmly believe if Sean actually pulls us off and pulls off the upset, he will be getting that title shot regardless of his loss to Cheeto and the fact that Cheetah is one of the other people out there. That's just sort of how the sport works. So just the stakes involved in this, the questions that will be answered, just all of it. It's all so unknowable, and it's all sort of in the air right now.

And I absolutely love fights like this where we have no actual idea what we're going to see. O'Malley picks up the biggest win of his career via split decision, and would also take home his seventh performance bonus. You know, he was as good as I thought he was. Like, if I had a guess how that fight was going to play out, I would have, you know, I would have said it probably would play out like that. That dude's good. He's, you know, he was the number one guy in the world.

Pretty sure he was in the top 15 pound for pound rankings. The dude's a killer. Dana, I cannot believe. I mean, here's how Dana White feels about this division right now. He actually said the two words. He dropped the name. He said Henry Sandovo into a live microphone. I couldn't believe it.

And I want to throw up, Sean. What hell are they doing? What are they doing? I could not believe it. Why? Like, what are we doing here? We have, you, again, you have built this really fun Grand Prix that we're in the midst of. It's just one dude trying to like inch over the next.

And instead of rewarding the hard work of guys like, you know, Cheeto Vera, who's just out there, Bolton guys. Corey Sanhagen coming off a big win. You know, and other guys as well, Piotr. Sean O'Malley. this point, Sean O'Malley, we will get to that in a minute. Like, you can feel how you want about the judge's scorecards, but two things happen to that fight.

Shotomily proved he belonged. And Sean O'Malley, when we look at the record books, beat Piotr-Jon at UFC, whether we like it or not. So with all of this said, Sean, he says, a report is asking what do you think some of the band-in-way division? He goes, what about Henry Suhudo? That sounds like a good time. I couldn't believe this.

What are we doing here? What are we doing here with this division? It's so good. You're just throwing it in the garbage. All this hard work you've done all year. You're just throwing it away for this guy who turned his back on you. Two years ago and said, screw you. Give me more money.

And then you gave Peonori on a title shot that same night. He turned his back and you didn't care. And now you want him back? What are we doing, Sean? What are we doing here? It felt like a fight where we all gain respect for Sean, but he loses and there's no shame in the way he even loses, putting Peoria in a danger in a way that's never been before.

Like that's real and that matters. And then him getting the scorecard, I don't agree. I want to rewatch it. It feels closer to robbery than bad decision. I know that that is a very hot button topic right now on the Twitter sphere, certainly if people being like it's not a robbery at all. every single MMA media person scoring it for Piorion really trends towards robbery as opposed to bad decision. I would put it back to that's not definitive.

Like it's not the thing, but that's it felt like that. But at the end of the day, it doesn't matter. What matters is he officially won. And so why in God's green earth are we not pushing this kid to the moon? That's the point of having him, of putting him in this position. of making Sean Shelby look like a genius for doing this. Like it is to take him and build him and cut a promo for him if he is too concussed or tired to make that afterwards to say,

yes, this is it. So in four months when they're fighting, when he's fighting Aljo for the belt, you can have that on the promo reel. I just don't know what we're doing here. Sean came in and impressed, man. Like, ultimately, that dude belongs in the top 10 of this division, and he belongs fighting in these contender fights, right?

And that in and of itself is a win, even if he would have lost. But you're right. The fact that he did actually get the W, we're not doing the thing when the UFC has been trying to do the thing with this guy for so long, and now they finally have a chance to do the thing. And now we're not doing the thing. It's just, what can you say? March 11, 2023.

UFC fight night, Jan v. Devalesvilley, Las Vegas, Nevada. The machine is booked in his first ever UFC main event. Opposite former champion, Peter Jan. I want to win for my people, and I have so many support from my country and so many support from Ukraine too. But Peter is a great fighter. He's former champion.

We all know he's top. As a fighter, he's a great fighter. He's dangerous. And he don't have hole anywhere. You know, he's good striker, he defends wrestling good, you know, his cardio is good. And this is my toughest fight. But, and I have other reasons, you know, he, I think he's a great fighter, good family guy, but he's not a humble guy. And he's not, he's not great human, I think, you know.

But it doesn't matter how good fighter you are, you have to be. good person you have to treat the people well and I don't care if you're good fighter or no I just want to be a good man and then for people and for give good example for other people and you know he's he's she there you know he was champion he don't know rule and then he was disrespect my friend and he don't use his platform when he was champion you know he wasn't doing like great things you wasn't like doing any charity or any like like humble things you know and I don't think he's a good good guy you know like maybe he's good for his family but other than that what he's doing nothing

the betting underdog wins a lopsided decision he just blew the doors off of peyoteurion swept the scorecards his fight was not even all that competitive how surprised were you to see it play out the way that it did. I was very surprised. I mean, we talked about it in the pre-fight Q&A. I didn't think he'd be able to get Jan down all that successfully and was correct in that. He didn't.

But I just sort of didn't think that he'd be able to do this to put his cardio wrestling game, you know, to bear on a guy who has proven to be extremely well versed in 25-minute fights like killed ryan gets stronger as fights go on like that is the hallmark of his game and it wasn't there right and i don't know it looked like he caught uh got hurt in that second round from a leg kick and the commentary team was saying it at marab had been throwing a ton of those i don't know if he just blew a tire and could never get back on or if marab is simply you can't stop the cardio monster but But I mean, he whitewashed him. It's 50-45 officially.

Probably should have gotten like a 10-8 for that second round, too. Like, that was just pillared to post, man. I've been saying the same thing about Marab for like three years now. There is not a Banimate on planet Earth who is going to be excited to see that man's name on the other side of a contract. It's the risk reward is just not there. Now he can't be denied. He's won, what, nine in a row now? He's a win away.

at war, maybe two, at worst, he's two wins away with this division being what it is. But he's in a great spot because no one does to Peoria on what he did to Peoria on tonight. Not even Al Jemann Sterling could do that. And that was friggin impressive. So may not be the most compelling thing. May not be if I were going to go back and watch again and again and again. But the dude just went in there and got it done. And that's the thing.

It is undeniably impressive. I don't want anyone to misconstrue what I'm saying here. Yeah. But in the exact same way that George St. Pierre just positionally controlling the hell out of Dan Hardy is not compelling fighting, large stretches of that fight were not. Now, there were parts of it that there were. As I said, the first two rounds were pretty good. There was back and forth. He was actively trying to damage him.

In the fifth round, he picked it back up again. But he marabbed real hard during the middle sections of that fight. And it was just like, okay, oops, bam. I was doing live blogging. At one point there, I'm just like, yep, shot a takedown stuff, punched on the break, shot again, stuffed, rinse and repeat. It's just like that's not my favorite thing to watch, Mike. If you like it, then bloody Marab is the fighter for you. And even better, there aren't.

I'm trying to think of people that I think in this division that could stop him from doing that at this juncture. Maybe two people in this. division that I can see an argument for being like they can have success in stopping this from happening. So you're going to be in store for some good fights if that's your particular brand of vodka. August 19, 2023, UFC 292 Sterling versus O'Malley, Boston, Massachusetts. Sugar Sean O'Malley is booked in his first UFC title fight and his first main event opposite champion Al Jermaine Sterling. It just feels like it's meant to be right now.

It's like this is my time. I've seen this kind of playing out over my career. I said before, you know, I even fought Alfred on the Contender Series that, you know, I'm going to be that dude. I'm going to be fighting, you know, main events, world titles, paper views. And now it's here. So it's not like a big surprise to me. I knew I'd put in the work, beat the guys I needed to beat and I'd be here.

But yeah, it's still really cool to see, you know, on the billboards and, you know, main event, it's awesome. I know he's worried about the unknown. I mean, you got to be a little bit going into a fight. You just don't know what's going to happen. But I mean, you've seen how I've knocked people out. You don't want to be on the other end of that. You don't want to, that changes people's careers when you get knocked out that way.

You're like, man, I didn't really know people could be that fast. It's possible. O'Malley knocks out Aljo one minute into the second round. The 17-1, Sean O'Malley, is the new UFC Bannamweight champion. in. Dude, I haven't grappled in six weeks. I had a muscle strain and I literally couldn't grapple in six weeks. Couldn't MMA spar. I was the main event in Boston. There was no shot I was pulling out. But we haven't grappled in six weeks. Six weeks from the date from today, I hurt my, I had a muscle strain right under my rib and I couldn't grapple. And so coming into this fight, fighting Aljo, every time I did interviews and I was

saying it's life or death, I cannot get taken down. It was because I didn't know if this would hold up. fucking sore right now and I don't know if it was from a kick or just from the little bit of scramble or a little bit of grappling we did but it's definitely like there's it's not super painful but I definitely feel it so um dealing with those mental demons coming into this fight knowing I was injured ish like I was I literally you know we didn't grapple one day in the last six weeks didn't grapple at all fight week and I kept saying in every interview it's life or death if he takes me down and I was I was kind of referring to that but I wasn't going to going to come out and say I'm injured.

You pretty much called your shot next, right? You want to rematch with Chita Vera later this year? Yeah, I thought, you know, let's shoot a promo, but we'll see. I just, he, just the way he acts, he's so annoying, just like he's not funny and he tries to be so ugly. He dresses like an idiot. It's like, God, do I really have to give this guy an opportunity? But I'm like, well, probably just go out there and whoop his ass, make a lot of money so I could. So, yeah, that could be it.

I also wouldn't mind knocking out Jervante Davis. And I know people are going to go, oh, you want to be Connor. I'm telling you, that fight is going to happen. All the on-paper stuff was in Aljo's favor. But there were vibes. There was this idea that maybe O'Malley has a touch of the McGregor and him. This ability sort of make unlikely outcomes occur in the best, you know, possible universe for him.

And it happened eerily close to the McGregor-Aldo finish, frankly, him doing that over a guy colloquially known as Aljo is certainly something. And, you know, history may not repeat itself, but it appears to have rhymed in this instance. And so not like shocking that this happened. I'm not like, I can't believe what occurred. But it was very cool to see happen and sort of where we're going to go from here. The Bannam White Division is never going to be the same. And it might not be for better, Frank.

but I'm very interested to see kind of how this how this rope plays out moving forward. After tonight, O'Malley is the number two star in M.A. Like, I feel really confident and comfortable calling Sean O'Malley the number two biggest star in MMA. And arguably, number one, depending on your views on if Connor still intends to ever fight again. So, yeah, it's unquestionably the biggest fight in the history of this division. It's the biggest fight that can be made in the sport right now, probably. maybe you could do something with Connor and somebody else. But I think that this fight will do better numbers than Connor versus Chandler will.

And I think Connor versus Chandler will do just fine because it's still Connor. But you got to have some a real foil. And that's, I think that's what Cheetos is bringing here. So yeah, I'd be pretty surprised at this point if that's not 296 December in Las Vegas, the headliner. And it's never going to, like you said, Sean Amalley is never going to not fight. the main event of a pay-per-view from this point forward. That is just not his lot in life at this moment in time because the UFC's never going to put him on a card with Connor, who's the only dude who could take that spot from him at the

moment. February 17, 2024, UFC 298 Volcanowski v. Tuporia, Anaheim, California. Marab de Valsh-Willi is booked in yet another top contender matchup. This time against former two-division champion in Olympic gold medalist, Henry Sehou. How many times do you think you can take down an Olympic gold medalist in 15 minutes? Actually, I'm not focused on this because it's a fight. He is better wrestler than me. He has an Olympic gold, you know.

I'm sure if you're wrestling, he will be in wrestling rules. But in M.A, I think I will do very, very well against him, you know, because it's an MMA, it's a fight. It's totally different game. and I'm focused of win the fight, and I don't know, I'm not focused of taking down because it's a fight, you know. It's not a wrestling tournament. It's not an Olympic game.

You know, we understand he has a gold medal, I know. But in the M.MA, all I want to do is just win, even if I have to just kicking all day, you know, I will do that. Marab out wrestles, outworks, and has a little fun against Triple C. winning by decision. This moves Marab's win streak to an incredible 10 consecutive fights. Dana confirmed that you are next

as if there was any choice to be made, but he said it. So what does it mean for you knowing that your next fight is for a UFC title? That means I'm fighting for the belt and I have another challenge. That's the only goal I have now, fight for the title and

win the belt. I believe myself. I'm only getting better as you guys see. You know, every fire looks so much easier. And really tonight, I wasn't even really breathing. I wasn't really even like heavier. I mean, I was very comfortable. And yeah, this is only beginning, you know. I have so many years left of me because I live healthy lifestyle and I change little things in my life for the full time fighting. and just training hard, training smart, and I'm just grinding and and I'm just blessed. And yeah, so now, yeah, I'll be ready. I can make weight in five days and no problem. If they need a replacement, I will be there. If not then I've enjoyed my time and I will just training like I was training and I will face whoever will be champion.

March 9th, 2024, UFC 299, O'Malley versus Vera 2, Miami, Florida. Sean O'Malley is set to defend his championship for the first time in a rematch of his only career loss. He is set to face Marlon Cheeto Vera once again as the main event for the pay-per-view in Miami. If Sean O'Malley comes in and fights the way he always fights, I think that's walking right into the best parts of Cheeto in a way that's really tough for him. I have comp this fight or this matchup to Connor versus Nate. And I think that that's a pretty good comp, honestly. And the question for me is, does this look like the first one where Connor tried to blow Nate out of the water? Couldn't do it and he was dead.

Or does this look at the second one where Connor still had to survive some really tough moments, but he fought really smart, fought pretty against type for how Connor wants to fight and manage to eke out a decision? Because I think that's how Sean has to win this fight. unless of course Cheeto just doesn't fight because sometimes Cheeto does that. Cheetos a fucking pinata. Peter Yonts one fight away from bare knuckle boxing and Marab's nose more crooked than Joe Biden.

Let's fucking go, baby! In one of the best performances of his career, O'Malley wins a dominant unanimous decision. I mean, I knew I was better than this guy for three and a half years. I knew the first flight was a fight was a fluke. And I proved that, you know, so it felt good. We talked about it on the preview show, You asked, hey, what's your biggest question coming into this?

And I had two questions. And it was one for each of them. And the one for O'Malley is, is he going to fight smart? Is he, there is a clear path forward for him to approach this fight? Is he going to take that path or is he going to buy into the, I'm going to knock Cheeto out thing? I'm going to do this. Nobody's ever done it. I'm going to be the guy.

And then down that path lay damnation. That's how he can lose this fight, is thinking that and pursuing it to his own detriment. And he didn't. He fought a brilliant fight. It was, you said discipline, and I think that is the best word, but it's more than that, too, because it was not just the discipline of it. That is the most impressive part, the fact that he came in with a great game plan, executed it brilliantly, and never really deviated.

But he also showed me stuff beyond that, because when we were talking pre-fight, it was, how can he be super impressive? And I was like, well, I mean, obviously he knocked out Cheetah, but I don't think that's possible. And we learned that that's true. it's just not possible to do that to Cheeto apparently. But he can have a really disciplined performance and he did that. But beyond that, he also showed a ton more toughness than we've really had to see him display before. I mean, there were moments of it in the Yon fight, but you said Cheeto didn't really hit him all that hard.

I would disagree. I don't think Cheeto hit him that often. But there were several moments when Cheeto finally got one shot in and Sean ate it, reset and was like, hey, we're not going to do this anymore. but he was never scared of Cheeto. He was never concerned about what came back. He was respectful of it, but clearly showed an ability to sort of dig deep in moments when Cheeto did start having success at various points.

Sean did not just run away until Cheeto got tired. Sean sat in the pocket and fired back and was like, bro, back to fuck off me. It was a disciplined performance. It was a beautiful performance. It was a much more rugged performance in spaces then I think he'll get credit for because we are all fascinated with the prettiness of it. But it was a total performance and showed that he is still developing, still improving,

and legitimately like him or not, like one of the best fighters in the world and certainly one of, if not the best fighter in this weight class. September 14, 2024, UFC 306, O'Malley versus Davalish-Willi, Las Vegas, Nevada. For the first time, the UFC holds a pay-per-view event at Sveed. year for its second annual Noce UFC event. The main event for this massive spectacle is the UFC Bannamate champion, Sugar Sean O'Malley, defending his championship versus the machine, Marab de Walsh Willey. How long would you say you've wanted to fight Sean O'Malley for?

When was the first time you looked at Sean and said, oh, I'd like to fight that guy? He got my intention when, once I see on dinner with contended serious. he He won an incredible way and he got UFC contract and I keep eyeing on him and

unfortunately my first two-fight I have a controversial lost even I feel I win first to fight UFC my record says I lost those fights and of course

when it comes from lost you don't want to call somebody but once I I win my first fight 2018 exactly this time, like it was September. So that was six years ago. I called Shono Mali because I wanted to fight him. We both beat same opponent at the time and I wanted to fight him. I think that time Shonomali was 1 and 0 or 2 and O UFC. And yeah, my record wasn't look good, you know, and I thought he will accept me.

You know, I thought he will look me as an easy opponent, but somehow he never respond. And because I wanted to fight him because I see him, I see him as a challenge. Because how he was fighting, how he was not crippled. And I wasn't thinking it was easy fight. I don't think it's easy fight until even today. And now I'm still, I'm still, I'm still excited to fight him. The sphere is going to be cool for everyone else, but me, me, I have this. For me, it's tunnel vision.

I'm walking to the cage. I'm doing what I have to do. I'll enjoy the show after. I don't let myself kind of think about all that. So for me, it's going to be, well, we'll see. Maybe it's going to be so crazy. I'm going to have no choice but to look around. And I mean, I'll look around and take it in,

but I'm not thinking about all the extra stuff. In a classic Marab performance, cardio and wrestling are enough from Marab de Welsh willy to defeat O'Malley by unanimous decision and become the brand new UFC Bannamweight champion. It's an MMA fight and I was ready for everything. I was ready for war. But when I see his power, I see his everything,

and he wasn't coming, he was waiting for me. And then I, how tricky he did against Aljo, I try to do the same, you know, like if you don't want to come to me, I'm not going to come. And so, yeah, nothing surprised me, actually. You know, I make him look normal. All country knows me when I say yes, and all countries, and all countries supports me.

It's a very big deal. Georgian-Mera fighting in UFC and fighting for UFC belt. And I'm Georgian. Georgia gives me everything, all the power, all the knowledge, like everything. I fight for my country. And I'm ready for dying my country. And we all support each other.

And we are very tight community. And they are very happy for me. And I'm so happy for every Georgians. And that's all. about man now today everybody happy in Georgia and I'm glad I did this make my country proud and happy inspire young kids and it's only beginning I'm only getting better and I will I will continue to do same thing for my country everybody talked about this this is not a surprising outcome I did not think it would happen I picked Sean Amalley I've been on

Sean Amali and but nobody was shocked at how Morab could win this is what Morab does I I thought Sean Amali would be a little bit more effective with his defensive wrestling, with dictating the range, with his offense, and he was stifled immediately. Marab came out and did exactly what I wanted to do. I thought a very disciplined game playing for Marab that he's not getting a ton of credit for because it's not the kind of performance you're going to get credit for. The only real ways Marab is going to get credit for is when he overachieves, when the expectation was not there to do something and that he is, you know,

showing how great his cardio is, but that that's not really that replicable. You're not doing the time and time again like, wow, that guy never slows down for like 25 minutes. We all recognize it's very difficult that he very, very realistically may have the greatest cardio in the history of MMA. But that's not a flashy talking point you want to keep going on about. So by nature, this is going to turn a little more towards well, Sean looked flat. Sean wasn't good, but this is, Marab said he was going to do this from, from Jump Street, came out, didn't get drawn into any kind of brawls like he did against Henry Sehudo at moments, and just a clean, effective thing. Weird. There were some real weird parts going on this fight, Mike.

Don't get that twisted. But I mean, this is an A plus performance from Maraub de Vallechevili, and he's your new champion. And that's like that is what matters the most. And he did it. January 18th, 2025, UFC 311, Mokachev versus Moikano, Inglewood, California. Marab is set to make his first title defense against the undefeated 18-0, Umar Nirmaga-Madoff. I said in the entrance here that you are five tank downs away from tying George St. Pierre for the most in history. Do you think you can take down Umar six times in this fight and break the record? That's always good to break the record. record but I'm here for fight I'm not looking for wrestling if record is happened

happened if not I wanted to punch umar numagademados face and you guys all see on Saturday night and guys thank you so much for support and love he will break j sb record in the next fight not in this fight talk now we're gonna find out Saturday night you can talk now continue talk but you will be humbled my friend always humble Marab. I'm always. You don't need to do something. I'm always. Good for you. That's how it should be.

You watched the press conference yesterday, right, Jed? Sure did. Did you take anything away from the press conference in regards to this fight? Do you feel any differently about Marab? Do you feel any differently about Umar than you did, say, 48 hours ago? No, but like there was just nothing

that was going to change my opinion on this fight. I don't think. I feel very slightly different. I'll come back to that in a second. What I noticed, what really jumped out at me is, I think, the obvious part of, to me at least, the, you know, Umar and company, they, they started digging in a little more. Like at the, at the first presser, it was, it was so weird. We talked ad nauseum about it.

Marab went off the handle, acting crazy for no reason, sort of. You know, Europe, POS, blah, blah, blah, like, screaming while Umar was pretty calm and being like, hey man, we're going to fight. You can just chill. This one, it feels like they might have, they might sense weakness and are trying to twist the knife. They're trying to poke at the, I'm more Georgian than you. They're really trying to get under Marab's skin and play a mental warfare game that we

haven't traditionally seen with that team. So that jumped out at me, but primarily nothing changes in this fight for me. except now really the one question I kind of had before has been locked into me. And it is very simply. I think Umar wins this fight whatever happens tomorrow. I am fascinated to see what Marab looks like in the cage because a part of me, armchair psychologist, uh, Sigmund Freud, Michoud checking in here, thinks that he is going to fight completely outside of his mind in a bad way,

that the mental pressure that this stuff has gotten to him, and that will open him up to get jawed. Maybe that just doesn't happen. Maybe Marab is not like that. Marab, once the cage door closes, he's strictly about to business, goes in, competes the same as always. In either of those circumstances, I don't think anything changes. Frankly, maybe there's a world where this inspires him to be better than he ever was before,

and he shows newfound striking ability. I am just fascinated on what the mental aspect of this has done. done for Marab and what he is going to look like come fight night because I have an idea what I think will happen, but I'm not confident. And so I just, I really want to see how he looks on Saturday. In an incredibly fun and competitive battle, the betting underdog, Marab de Balaswili, hands Dramaga made off his first loss by defending his title via unanimous decision. Every fight is different, man.

If I have to make a, if I have to take Shono Mali down and make it look easy, why I have to beat this guy too much? I will beat him next time, you know? I want to left more. I don't know, man, like every fight is different, different challenge, you know. And but I prove again that I can fight everybody, any style. And then I'm a champion and I beat a lot of good guys. I don't know how to answer your question. I mean, okay, I'm getting better.

So some Russian journalists asked me, remind me, actually, I was working construction before, and then I forget about this, but I wasn't like a real full-time fighter. But now I'm a full-time fighter, I'm getting better, and I'm still going to get better. But Rob winning this fight, like, the difference between win and loss here is, like, literally everything from Rob.

Because if he lost, never, ever sniffing a title shot again, unless he had to fall into it on like a day's notice just have to be in town for something. But now that he beat Umar, now that he exercised the demons, he beat the boogeyman of this division. The guy people, I believe yourself,

had ranked as the number one band-a-o-weight on the planet. A.K. Lee has been singing it for a year. That's the best band-em-wainting the world, especially if the Corey Sanhagan win. Rob just beat this guy. He just got him out of the way. And now all these big fights, with guys he's already beaten,

with way bigger names right now, I guess from a legacy perspective. And favorable matchups are right there for Marab. This is prime money-making season. And now he's so far ahead of the game because of this victory. I was talking about it in the preview show in the wash party. This was, I think there is an argument. I'd have to really dive in and see that this was the most boom-bust win in the UFC history. Because it's smooth sailing out, Mike.

Like he is, we're staring down the barrel of a Shawno Mallory rematch. It's undeserved. We don't need to dive into that happening. It's going to happen. It's going to happen. We saw that fight. There are no questions about how that fight will go in perpetuity, frankly. He's going to win that big money fight.

Already, like, he has a great resume, but he has a couple title defenses. And his next opponents appear to be rematches with guys he dominated. Okay. there's a very real opportunity that by the end of this year, if not next year, you know, early next year, he is now as a compelling case, has the bantam weight goat. He got a lot more money in his pocket. He's got multiple title defenses. And now he's starting to do that.

I've cleaned out the weight class. I want to get my shot at featherweight, even though I know he and Elliott Teporea, you know, Georgian friendship going, maybe a lot of time between now and then. And so this was a monster win considering how much to gain versus how much to lose the delta between those two. So, super, super big win for Marab. June 7, 2025, UFC 316 Davalishvili versus O'Malley 2, Newark, New Jersey. Sean O'Malley is awarded a rematch with the man who took the UFC Bannamweight championship from him, Morav de Valleishvili.

The championship rematch will be set as the main event for the paper. at the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey.