Merab Dvalishvili and Sean O’Malley | Photo by Chris Unger/Zuffa LLC

Merab Dvalishvili already convincingly beat Sean O’Malley. But if they fight again, Dvalishvili is confident he can do even better.

It took five rounds for Dvalishvili to best O’Malley and win the bantamweight championship this past September at UFC 306. While O’Malley has disputed the result, he spent the majority of the contest defending against Dvalishvili’s relentless wrestling, so there was little controversy surrounding the scoring.

Dvalishvili’s first title defense is yet to be booked, though he and O’Malley have both spoken about the possibility of an immediate rematch. The champion gave his reasoning for a second O’Malley fight on an episode of The Ariel Helwani Show.

“I’m in, 100 percent,” Dvalishvili said. “When I saw the first time he wants to do rematch, I said let’s fight in November. Even though I’m here, I’m working with UFC, I can fight him—I know he’s not ready now, but that’s why I told him let’s fight in November. We already fought, and I know his game, his power, everything, no problem. I can fight him back and now I will not kiss him, I will finish him, and I will take care of him. I go easy on him the first time, so now this time I will destroy him.”

O’Malley is unlikely to return to action soon, with the fighter recently announcing that hip surgery could keep him sidelined until summer 2025. At best, he hopes to be back in March.

Should they eventually rematch, Dvalishvili vowed to not take it easy on O’Malley and promised a finish.

“Actually, I wanted to finish him fifth round, but [referee] Herb Dean, when I took [O’Malley] down, I was waiting,” Dvalishvili said. “Sean was supposed to move and I either choke him or punch him hard and try to finish him, Herb Dean told me to work and I let go. I changed the position and he told me again, ‘You’ve got to work,’ and then I let go, what should I do, and I let him get up. Then I took a long time to take him down again in the fifth round, otherwise I was going to finish him fifth round, but Herb Dean made me let go.”

“This time, I’m going to try finish him early. I was trying to finish him fifth round, but it doesn’t work out that way. This time, I will finish him early. Now he’s saying he wants to finish me or he will do better, OK, that’s interesting me more if he will do it. If people are interested, I’m in.”

A Dvalishvili-O’Malley rematch became more likely following rumors that undefeated contender Umar Nurmagomedov is in talks to fight Song Yadong rather than challenge for the title. Nurmagomedov was in attendance at UFC 306 seemingly to build to a matchup, but Dvalishvil’s team has been reluctant to anoint Nurmagomedov as the No. 1 option, a situation that has generated criticism.

Dvalishvili wants it to be clear that he will fight Nurmagomedov or anyone else if that’s what the matchmakers call for.

“I have no problem,” Dvalishvili said. “Whoever the UFC will offer me, I will fight. I never choose my opponent, and I’m going to continue same. I never have an option like this to say I’m going to fight him or him, I was never in this situation before and I don’t think any different now.”

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Giant. Francis Ngannou’s coach Eric Nicksick breaks down the heavyweight star’s PFL debut.

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Hate. Bruno “Blindado” Silva really, really, really cannot stand Chris Weidman.

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VIDEO STEW

Mike Heck chats with Coach Nicksick.

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FLAVOR IN YOUR EAR

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SOCIAL MEDIA BOUILLABAISSE

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FINAL THOUGHTS

Are there any UFC champions right now properly building up their rightful contenders? Dvalishvili is playing coy with all the Nurmagomedov talk, Julianna Peña is trolling Kayla Harrison, Ilia Topuria is feuding with Belal Muhammad (?) and barely hyping up the fight that’s just days away, and let’s not even get started on Jon Jones.

These folks at the top have earned their spots, but all of this anti-promotion gets exhausting after a while.

EXIT POLL

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