Sean O’Malley was once considered as the UFC’s golden goose. At least this is what Aljamain Sterling believes. “I know he was happy,” Sterling stated to The MMA Hour regarding Dana White’s probable reaction to his UFC 292 loss to Sean O’Malley. “How could he not be? The golden goose won in a fight matchup.” However, as per MMA Knockout, Dana White denied these allegations and said, “Now they’re saying [the same thing about] Bo Nickal, ‘Oh, Bo Nickal’s f******…’ you know what I mean? They said the same thing about Conor [McGregor]!”

Meanwhile, everyone wanted a piece of ‘Suga’ when he was the UFC champ. He held the bantamweight title for more than a year, defending it against Marlon Chito Vera before losing it months later to Merab Dvalishvili at UFC 306. However O’Malley claimed that he won the fight against ‘The Machine’, stating,  “People are saying they could have given me this first round. This first round, a minute and a half left? I won this sh–. He still hasn’t hit me with anything, right? This wasn’t tight at all, I won that round; that’s not even that controversial.”

Now it seems even ex-UFC star Chael Sonnen agrees with ‘Suga’ and said something similar while speaking to Mike Bohn. Sonnen started his explanation with, “What a hard fight, though I mean Sean O’Malley, what a hard fight, and it’s not the one that I think Merab was going to have. I will also tell you this because nobody else will. O’Malley vs Merab, I’m not sure that Merab won that night. I mean, that wasn’t met with a lot of controversy. That was pretty widely accepted. And we all got up and went home. That surprised me. If you go back and watch the fourth or fifth round, you might come to a different opinion than you did the first time.”

‘The American Gangster’ then took aim the commentators from that evening, like Joe Rogan, and said, “I mean that fight might have been 3-2 O’Malley. The announcers were very influenced from the very beginning by that, and they are in most of the fights. I’m just sharing with you from my perspective because I did not have the announcer; I was there live. So I didn’t get to hear any of that. So I just watched the fight, and when it was done, I was like Oh. Close by, but O’Malley won. And it wasn’t the case. And I will share this with you. If either of them is going to fight better this time, it’s going to be O’Malley.”

Meanwhile, the duo is up for a rematch at UFC 316, and both are gearing up in full force. However, Dvalishvili seems to be dealing with a wounded toe. Despite that, he is ready to fight as per his social media uploads. Let’s see what’s his thoughts on the rematch..

Merab Dvalishvili wants a good fight at UFC 316

While speaking to former UFC middleweight champ Michael Bisping, ‘The Machine’ said, “You never say never, but I want a good fight. Like I said, yeah, I hope he’s all right. Yeah, I have been focusing more [to] show [up] to a good fight, and yeah, I had a little fun kissing him. But I am not planning this time to kiss more, but let’s see. Let’s see how everything will go. Yeah, I will be more focused for sure, good fights.”

This time, the stakes are higher because previously, ‘Suga’ was not 100% healthy going into the fight. O’Malley said that his loss was because of a torn labrum sustained ten weeks before the fight. During his appearance on the JRE podcast, O’Malley said, “I tore my labrum ten weeks before the fight… It wasn’t ideal.”

But this time, he has recovered after surgery and is completely healthy. However, Dvalishvili has a toe injury now after training with 26-year-old LFA star Cameron Sandoval. Even though he says he is ready to fight, any kind of injury creates a hindrance. Can Dvalishvili defend his title? Or will O’Malley become the champ again? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.