Urijah Faber believes that Merab Dvalishvili is a ‘bad matchup’ for Sean O’Malley.
The current UFC bantamweight champion O’Malley (18-1 MMA) last fought and defeated Marlon Vera (23-9 MMA) this past March at UFC 299 in his first title defence.
All eyes are now on ‘Suga‘ as to who he’ll get in the Octagon with next.
Merab Dvalishvili (17-4 MMA) is an obvious favorite, who has won his last 10 bouts in the cage. ‘The Machine’ has defeated the likes of Jose Aldo (32-8 MMA), Henry Cejudo (16-4 MMA) and Petr Yan (17-5 MMA) to name a few.
Urijah Faber, speaking with ‘LowKick MMA‘ shared his insight into how Sean O’Malley would handle the offensive wrestling pressure of Merab Dvalishvili:
“I think it’s going to be hard to say. You would think so, but nobody else has been able to (stop the wrestling), even Henry Cejudo.”
Continuing ‘The California Kid’ Urijah Faber said:
“Honestly, that’s a bad matchup for O’Malley. Merab is so durable. That dude is durable. He’s gone against some killers, and just kind of walked through their best offence. The only time he’s really been hurt is when he knocked himself out, slamming himself, ya know.”
Concluding, the UFC Hall of Famer believes it could go either way:
“But, O’Malley has got that It factor. He’s got a finesse about him, he’s got like a matador type of style. Merab is definitely a bull, and If O’Malley can have his perfect fight, he’ll just be tagging him with clean shots and staying on the outside. O’Malley’s grappling is really good. I’ve trained with some of his training partners, and they are really high-level training partners… It could go either way.”
Would you like to see O’Malley vs. Dvalishvili in the near future? Who would you bet on for the W?
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