Urijah Faber recently spoke with us here at Lowkick MMA and gave his thoughts on how the current bantamweight champion, Sean O’Malley, would fare against what many consider to be his toughest challenger yet: Merab Dvalishvili.
It seems almost fated that O’Malley and Dvalishvili will fight for the title. ‘Suga’ keeps icing everybody the UFC puts in his way, and Dvalishvili has been a seemingly unstoppable force in the 135lbs division for a long time now. ‘The Machine’ is currently riding an astonishing 10-fight win streak inside the UFC, and it’s getting virtually impossible to deny him a title shot now.
The debate of Sean O’Malley vs Merab Dvalishvili is an intriguing one. Some don’t see how O’Malley will be able to contain the near nonstop pressure of ‘The Machine’, while others believe ‘Suga’ will rise to the occasion. Urijah Faber was kind enough to weigh in on this matter and provide his opinion as a UFC hall-of-famer and elite MMA coach.
Urijah Faber weighs in on the matchup between Sean O’Malley and Merab Dvalishvili
“I think it’s going to be hard to say,” Urijah Faber told LowKick MMA reporter Makoa Goble when asked how O’Malley might handle the offensive wrestling pressure that ‘The Machine’ can bring to the table. “You would think so, but nobody else has been able to (stop the wrestling), even Henry Cejudo.”
Merab Dvalishvili’s smothering wrestling pressure has been unstoppable so far. Many have accurately described ‘The Machine’ as a ‘grinder’, and it is true. For the most part, he simply gives his opponents no quarter and no room to breathe.
“Honestly, that’s a bad matchup for O’Malley,” Faber continued. “Because Merab is so durable. That dude is durable. He’s gone against some killers, and just kind of walked through their best offense. The only time he’s really been hurt is when he knocked himself out, slamming himself, ya know.”
“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.”
Who do you think will win between Sean O’Malley and Merab Dvalishvili?