Following his loss at UFC 306, Sean O’Malley was highly critiqued after a disappointing performance against Merab Dvalishvili that saw a fight go to distance in a unanimous decision loss.
Former UFC champion Henry Cejudo labeled Sean O’Malley’s title-capturing win at UFC 292 a ‘fluke’ over former champion Aljamain Sterling.
After defending his first UFC title defense against Chico Vera at UFC 299, ‘Suga’ was put to the test against Dvalishvili where it looked like a stylistic mismatch all night. Dvalishvili, who was cornered by Sterling in the fight, has a very similar style to him as they are both elite wrestlers and grapplers. The difference is that Merab was able to unanimously defeat Sean O’Malley while Sterling was knocked out in the second round in which O’Malley captured bantamweight gold.
Sean O’Malley’s ‘Fluke’ Victory vs. Sterling
In their podcast Pound 4 Pound, Kamaru Usman and Henry Cejudo discussed the fight between O’Malley and Dvalishvili. During the podcast, Cejudo spoke on O’Malley’s victory over Sterling stating, “I still go back and say hey, that fight with Aljamain Sterling, that was a fluke too. Aljamain was still in that fight…” He even went on to say that, “I did a whole lot better than Sean when I fought Merab. I mean I took down Merab.”
Despite Cejudo labeling O’Malley’s victory over Merab as a fluke, he too also lost to Dvalishvili via unanimous decision at UFC 298. During the podcast ‘Triple C’ said he fought Merab with an injured groin but wanted to fight him to set up a title fight against Sean O’Malley. Both of the former champions have gone back and forth with each other already on social media and Cejudo thought their animosity could carry towards a potential title fight.
It’ll be interesting to see what’s next for these fighters as O’Malley said he likely won’t fight for another year due to hip surgery. Merab is projected to fight the No.2 bantamweight in Umar Nurmagomedov while Cejudo is sitting at No.6 in the bantamweight rankings.
Sterling recently pulled out of his fight against Movsar Evloev due to injury, but hopes to be back in action before the end of the year.
