Las Vegas — Needless to say, bantamweight contender and now title challenger Merab Dvalishvili has been eyeing a fight with Sean O’Malley for a long time.
That dates back well before UFC 306, where Dvalishvili (17-4) is the next man up to challenge 135lb champ Sean O’Malley. In reality, the pair came into the promotion roughly around the same time, and both earned a win against Terrion Ware early on, O’Malley in 2017 and Merab the following year.
From day one, really, Dvalishvili wanted to ride with the “Suga Show.”
“He got my attention once I’d seen Dana White’s Contender Series. He won in an incredible way, he got a UFC contract, and I kept an eye on him. Unfortunately, my first two fights, I had controversial losses. Even [though] I feel like I won the first two fights in the UFC, my record says I lost those to fights. And of course when you’re coming from losses, you don’t want to call out somebody.”
Then, Dvalishvili won his fight against Ware. “When I won my first fight, 2018, exactly this time, it was September, that was six years ago, I called out Sean O’Malley because I wanted to fight him. We both beat the same opponent at that time. My record wasn’t looking good. I thought he would accept me, I thought he would look at me as an easy opponent. But somehow, he never responded.”
To be clear, Dvalishvili never saw O’Malley as easy work. Instead, he wanted to fight the future bantamweight champ for the challenge. “I wanted to fight because I see him as a challenge, because of how he was fighting, how he was knocking people out. I wasn’t thinking it was an easy fight, I don’t think it’s an easy fight even today. I’m still excited to fight him.”
There was also the fact that O’Malley had disrespected his native Georgia. “My country, it’s more than religion for me,” said Dvalishvili, who carries Georgia in his heart, and started fighting to represent his homeland. “When somebody, doesn’t matter who, disrespects your family or your country, you have to be mad. If you’re a man, you have to be mad, and I wanted to smack his face at that time. But now I have an even more important [reason] to beat him on Saturday night, and grab his belt, take his belt. I can talk after the fight, maybe I can forgive him, or we can just talk. I’m going to keep it that way, I want to just win and show him he has to be humble, and he has to respect everybody.”
That said, there’s no real bad blood headed into the fight it seems. “Today how I feel, nothing personal, just professional,” stated Dvalishvili.
It might be odd to find Merab Dvalishvili and Sean O’Malley headlining a card dedicated to Mexican Independence Day, but that’s the situation the UFC is in this weekend. Alexa Grasso serves as co-headliner, but the promotion wanted a bigger draw atop the card. Dvalishvili, however, has somewhat jokingly played the role of an adopted Mexican in recent months, with many of the UFC’s own Mexican fighters playing along.
O’Malley, meanwhile, has said he has a Mexican family (by way of marriage). So who’s really representing Mexico in the UFC 306 main event?
“Brother, yes he has a Mexican family, but I represent Mexico. I spent some time in Mexico, training camp, I was in Tijuana eating tacos, training there. I have Mexican friends. I love Mexico and Mexican people,” Dvalishvili said. “I’m not sure who’s more Mexican, but I will be happy to show a good performance on Saturday and make Mexican people proud, and visit Mexico again- but now this time with the belt, as a champion.”
Watch the full UFC 306 media day appearance by Merab Dvalishvili above.
