The American bantamweight says he wasn’t quite right last time and will be better in the UFC 316 rematch.
O’Malley vows to bring higher level in Dvalishvili rematch
Sean O’Malley swears he will be better when he fights Merab Dvalishvili in a rematch for the bantamweight title at UFC 316 in New Jersey in June.
The American entered their first fight last September as a -133.33 favorite across UFC betting sites to defend his belt but was thoroughly beaten by unanimous decision.
Now, heading into their second fight, O’Malley is a +240 underdog at Nags.bet to reclaim the bantamweight championship and exact his revenge over Dvalishvili.
But that is exactly what the 30-year-old believes he will do, revealing that last fight he was well below his best.
“I’m very confident in my skills,” O’Malley said on his YouTube channel after the fight announcement.
“Last camp we had some s*** going on.
“Last fight camp, every single journal entry was like, ‘My groin kept me up at night’ because I tore my labrum 10 weeks before the fight.
“I tore my groin labrum and I was having serious groin pain. It was super — it wasn’t ideal.
“I was able to train, I was able to tough through it, but obviously it’s not ideal to go into a fight, especially against a f***ing murderer — well, not a murderer, but a stud, an absolute machine like Merab.
“I don’t want to sit here and make excuses. We had a great camp, I showed up, I was in shape, we did what we could with what we were able to do.
“This camp has already been a lot different and I’m feeling good.
“I’m excited to go out there and take care of business.”
The mixed martial arts community has not responded well to O’Malley receiving an immediate rematch against Dvalishvili given how one-sided their initial fight was.
Since then, Dvalishvili has gone on to defend his belt once, beating Umar Nurmagomedov by unanimous decision as well.
However, O’Malley has even gone as far as putting an exact number on his improvement, saying that he will be “70 percent better” against Dvalishvili in June.
“If I can just keep this pace up, how we’ve been able to train the last few weeks, all the way up to the fight, I’m going to be 70 percent better than I was in that first fight,” he said.
“I’m going to be significantly more mobile, agile, better shape.
“I’m going to fight at my full potential.”
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