It’s a tale of two title fights at this Saturday’s UFC 316, and the build-up between the two could not be any more different.
Merab Dvalishvili and Sean O’Malley headline the Pay-Per-View event in Newark, New Jersey, a rematch of their UFC 306 title fight, which saw Georgian Dvalishvili dethrone O’Malley to claim gold. Since then, Dvalishvili has successfully defended his title against Umar Nurmagomedov, while O’Malley has sat on the sidelines, healing up from a torn labrum and landing a title shot more on name value than merit.
That doesn’t seem to bother Dvalishvili much, who has said he wants to defeat the “Suga Show” fighter without any excuse of injury or anything else being in play.
Still, the build-up between the two has been respectful this time out. No trash talk. O’Malley has called his foe the greatest bantamweight of all time. Dvalishvili is much happier in comparison to his fight with Nurmagomedov, who he repeatedly called disrespectful.
That’s in stark contrast to the UFC 316 co-main event, where Julianna Pena, the UFC’s reigning women’s bantamweight champion, has thrown the kitchen sink, verbally, at challenge Kayla Harrison. Pena has gone as far to question whether Harrison is a clean athlete, despite her having been drug tested thoroughly during her collegiate career, Olympic run, and in the UFC.
Harrison, a two-time gold medalist in Judo and two-time PFL champion, has taken it all in stride, but she’s never been one who’s afraid to bite back. Which, when it comes to sound bytes, has at least given the UFC some promotional ammunition.
UFC 316 will host it’s pre-fight press conference on Thursday, June 5, 2025. Catch that above starting at 5PM ET, 2PM PT.
