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Dvalishvili looked to defend his bantamweight title against Cory Sandhagen in the co-main event at UFC 320 last Saturday in Las Vegas. “The Sandman” was expected to pose some threat to Dvalishvili with his intriguing striking. However, Dvalishvili did what he does to everyone else: he put heavy wrestling pressure on Sandhagen for five rounds. Dvalishvili landed 20 takedowns, the highest ever in a UFC title fight, to earn a unanimous decision win. After Sandhagen, there appears to be lack of title contenders for Dvalishvili, who has already walked through tough competition on his way to the title.
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However, O’Malley believes he can beat “The Machine.” According to O’Malley, the only way to beat the Georgian champion is to knock him out clean. And “Suga” is confident that he is the only one who can land that knockout blow. While O’Malley doesn’t feel nice making that claim after two losses to Dvalishvili, he doesn’t think anyone else can dethrone the champion anytime soon. However, O’Malley also acknowledged that he needs to get back on the win column in order to make his case for a title shot.
’You Have to Be Able to Snipe Him’
“To beat Merab, you just have to land that shot. You have to be able to f—-ing snipe him,” O’Malley said on YouTube. “He was getting a little bit more reckless. The more confident he gets in his striking, the more gaps he leaves open to be caught… I hate to say it, I’m the only one who can beat him… I got to go out there and get some win. But I don’t see anyone beating Merab anytime soon. He needs to be clipped. He needs to be knocked out, put to sleep.”
O’Malley won the bantamweight title with a one-punch knockout upset win over Dvalishvili’s friend Aljamain Sterling in 2023. The Montana native defended his title against Marlon Vera before suffering a unanimous decision loss against Dvalishvili at Noche UFC last year. While Dvalishvili defended the strap against Umar Nurmagomedov in the meantime, O’Malley insisted on waiting for his rematch. “Suga” was submitted by Dvalishvili in their rematch at UFC 316 this past June.
Sean O’Malley still believes he’s the only fighter capable of beating Merab
“I hate to say it, I’m the only one who can beat him. He needs to be clipped. He needs to be knocked out and put to sleep to beat him.”
🎥 @SugaSeanMMA pic.twitter.com/BI6T4FQbfV
— Championship Rounds (@ChampRDS) October 7, 2025
This article first appeared at Recent News on Sherdog.com
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