UFC bantamweight champion Sean O’Malley recently conceded his title after losing to Merab Dvalishvili in their UFC 306 bout.
The fight ended with a unanimous decision win for Merab after five rounds of slugfest at the Sphere in Las Vegas. The match was long but eventful, with Merab giving the fight everything he had, landing unwavering punches and scoring takedowns. At the end of the match, the assault was too much for “Suga.”
The defeat has taken a toll on the former undefeated champion, who has decided to take a break from MMA. His need for hip surgery, after tearing a labrum ten weeks before his fight with Merab, also prompted this decision.
“I probably won’t fight for probably nine months, 10 months, maybe a year,” O’Malley said on his YouTube channel. “It’s going to be a while. People are going to have to watch the UFC without The Suga Show for a little bit, but then maybe they’ll realize, ‘F*ck, we had it, it was fun.’ … No one’s next. I’ve got to get healthy and that’s it. I’m going to actually heal up from injuries, and take my time to come back.”
“I have surgery on Oct. 3. I tore my labrum like ten weeks ago,” O’Malley said. “You have a labrum in both your shoulders and in your hips. I tore my left labrum in my hip, so I’ve got to get surgery. That’s the only reason I’m going to be out for so long.
“The surgery should only take two months to come back from and then it will take a couple of months of recovery. So a year’s a long time. It could be six to eight months but I’m kind of just going with the flow. You never know. The UFC won’t be the same without me.”
The fighter also dismissed some speculations about him being “flat” in the fight. O’Malley clarified that he lost because the better guy won.
“Great fight week, best weight cut, felt good, no excuses,” O’Malley said. “My mom, too, she says, ‘You just weren’t the same, what was wrong?’ Nothing. I just got beat. There was nothing. Everyone keeps asking me, ‘Something seemed off, something different, you were flat-footed,’ I was like, there was nothing. Zero excuses. Nothing. Had a good fight camp, good weight cut.”
“I feel like I got outstrengthed,” O’Malley added. “I knew what to do in certain positions. And I just felt like he was just stronger. I felt out strength, I didn’t feel too out-skilled, I felt speed, and I felt cardio was good.
“Damn, if I had just won one more [round], and those two judges said it? One more round? That’s crazy.”
“I should’ve used more energy to get up and break away instead of thinking, ‘F–k, I need to do this again next round if he takes me down.’ I needed to just go,” O’Malley said. “That’s probably what I’ve taken away from (the fight) without watching it. I shouldn’t have tried to conserve my energy for the later rounds. I should’ve just got up and got away.”
The bout was pretty tough, with Merab having the upper hand in the first three rounds. However, as it progressed, O’Malley got his footing and hoped his last efforts would have given him a standing change, but it was already too late.
“That fifth round? That stings,” O’Malley said. “That definitely f*cking stings. We partied like we won, I’ll tell you that much.
“F*ck. Literally, I’ve probably said f*ck 4,000 times. F*ck, that was such a massive opportunity, the eyeballs that were there — I was looking at Snapchat… like f*ck, all of those things could’ve been ‘The Suga Show,’… but it’s funny because none of those are [about] Merab. A couple of them were about me losing, but nothing about Merab winning. No one gives a f*ck. Not a hater, just saying.”
O’Malley has been pretty confident about his ability to beat Merab, but it seems he wasn’t able to reveal this. Hopefully, after his hiatus, the fighter may get a rematch and a chance to reclaim his title.
“I know I can beat him, which is, I guess, what sucks,” O’Malley said. “He beat me on the day that matters – that’s the one that matters.”
