{"id":195689,"date":"2025-10-07T19:09:07","date_gmt":"2025-10-07T19:09:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/195689\/"},"modified":"2025-10-07T19:09:07","modified_gmt":"2025-10-07T19:09:07","slug":"im-the-only-one-that-can-beat-him-sean-omalley-explains-why-hes-the-lone-fighter-to-stop-merab-dvalishvilis-title-reign","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/195689\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018I\u2019m the only one that can beat him\u2019: Sean O\u2019Malley explains why he\u2019s the lone fighter to stop Merab Dvalishvili\u2019s title reign"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Sean O\u2019Malley believes the third time could be the charm in his series against bantamweight champ Merab Dvalishvili, but he also knows there\u2019s work to do.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Dvalishvili picked up another dominant title defense this past Saturday with a unanimous decision win over Cory Sandhagen in the co-main event of UFC 320. O\u2019Malley \u2014 who has lost to Dvalishvili in title fights twice over the past 13 months \u2014 was impressed by Sandhagen\u2019s ability to avoid damage on the ground against the champion, but also noticed Dvalishvili\u2019s rising confidence on the feet, even hurting Sandhagen and nearly finishing him in Round 2.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">O\u2019Malley sees one way to beat Dvalishvili, and it\u2019s a skill, in his eyes, that only he possesses in the bantamweight division.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">\u201cTo beat Merab, you just have to land that shot,\u201d O\u2019Malley said on his <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=UvKjepVJthk\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">YouTube channel<\/a>. \u201cYou have to be able to f*cking snipe him, and he was getting a little bit more reckless. The more confident he gets in his striking, the more gaps it leaves open to be caught.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">\u201cI don\u2019t really see anyone beating him. I do think I\u2019m the only one\u2026 I hate to say it, I hate to f*cking say it, I\u2019m the only one that can beat him. Give me my shot at the White House. No, I got to go out and get some wins, but, yeah, I don\u2019t see anyone really beating Merab anytime soon. He needs to be clipped, needs to be knocked out, put to sleep to beat him, and I don\u2019t see anyone, other than myself, being able to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">As far as what could be next for Dvalishvili, O\u2019Malley sees two options: a rematch against a guy Dvalishvili already decisively beat in Petr Yan, or O\u2019Malley\u2019s longtime teammate if he can pick up the biggest win of his career at UFC 321.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">\u201cI\u2019m always excited to see Petr fight,\u201d O\u2019Malley said. \u201cWe saw Petr-Merab, it was 50-45, wasn\u2019t that exciting. If that was the next fight, I\u2019d watch. Mario [Bautista] vs. Umar [Nurmagomedov] is coming up. If Mario can go out there and finish Umar, or even just win a decisive decision, I think that would be next fight \u2014 Mario vs. Merab.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sean O\u2019Malley believes the third time could be the charm in his series against bantamweight champ Merab Dvalishvili,&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":195690,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[444],"tags":[49,48,641,701,638,82,640,702],"class_list":{"0":"post-195689","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mma","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-fighting","11":"tag-latest-news","12":"tag-mma","13":"tag-sports","14":"tag-ufc","15":"tag-ufc-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/195689","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=195689"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/195689\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/195690"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=195689"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=195689"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=195689"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}