Sean O’Malley Expects to Be '70 Percent Better' in Merab Dvalishvili Rematch

Sean O'Malley is well aware of the fact that some in the MMA community are less than pleased that he’s been granted an immediate rematch against Merab Dvalishvili.

“Suga” lost the bantamweight title to Dvalishvili via clear-cut unanimous decision at UFC 306 this past September. O’Malley has been sidelined since then as he recovers from a hip surgery he underwent after that bout. Meanwhile, Dvalishvili successfully defended the strap against Umar Nurmagomedov at UFC 311 in January.

On Tuesday, UFC CEO Dana White announced that the Dvalishvili-O’Malley 2 would headline UFC 316 in Newark, New Jersay on June 7.

“The rematch is official,” O’Malley said on his YouTube channel. “‘Suga’ Sean vs. Merab 2 is happening, and I don’t think people are going to be too happy about it.”

While the booking was met with a lukewarm reception, O’Malley expects to be at full capacity now that the issues with his hip have been addressed.

“Last fight camp, every single journal entry was like, ‘My groin kept me up at night’ because I tore my labrum 10 weeks before the fight,” O’Malley said. “I tore my groin labrum and I was having serious groin pain …It wasn’t ideal. I was able to train. I was able to tough through it, but obviously it’s not ideal to go into a fight, especially against a f—ing murderer—well, not a murderer — but a stud, an absolute machine.

At UFC 306, O’Malley struggled to pull the trigger offensively against Dvalishvili for the majority of the fight. His most memorable moment came in the final frame, when he appeared to hurt his Georgian opponent with a series of front kicks. However, if camp goes according to plan, the ex-champ believes things could look quite a bit different this time around.

“If I can just keep this pace up, how we’ve been able to train the last few weeks, all the way up to the fight, I’m going to be 70 percent better than I was in that first fight,” he said. “I’m going to be significantly more mobile, agile, better shape. I’m going to fight at my full potential. Whereas my last fight, I was very happy with how I was able to perform considering how I felt. It wasn’t ideal, the outcome, I didn’t win, but I also think I wasn’t supposed to win. This rematch was supposed to happen. It’s going to make this win that much more crazy.”

In addition to better health, O’Malley revealed that he has made some other significant changes in his life ahead of UFC 316. That includes cutting out social media, masturbation, gaming and smoking marijuana.

“I feel like a lot of things that have changed in my life are going to attribute to my performance,” O’Malley said.

For O’Malley, self-confidence will also play a big role in his ability to regain bantamweight gold.

“Literally just self-belief — that’s what got me to where I’m at right now. That’s what’s going to get me to win that next fight is self-belief, because I know I’m going to be a huge underdog,” O’Malley said. “Everyone is going to count me out, just like the [Aljamain Sterling] fight. One of my favorite moments is when Dana [White] after the fight asked all the media, there was 30 or 40 people, ‘Who in here thought Sean was going to win the fight?’ One person [from] Montana raised their hand. This is going to be the same thing. No one is going to expect me to go out there and do what I’m capable of doing.”