Sean O’Malley aims to prove a point when he steps inside the Octagon for a second time against Merab Dvalishvili for the bantamweight title at UFC 316. Given that ‘The Machine’ has defeated the cream of the crop in the 135 lbs weight class and stacked up his resume, ‘Suga’ believes defeating him now would shut all his critics up. But ahead of his rematch to become the best bantamweight in the promotion, Daniel Cormier has observed a significant issue when it comes to O’Malley, which could prove detrimental for the former champion.
Sean O’Malley, unfortunately, suffered a torn labrum before his initial encounter against Merab Dvalishvili, for which he had to undergo surgery. While recalling this issue, Daniel Cormier asked the co-host Ben Askren on his YouTube video, “The only thing that’s worrisome for me, if it’s Sean O’Malley, what has he done? He supposedly was injured, right?” ‘Funky’ seemingly remembered O’Malley’s injury crisis, responding, “Didn’t he say he was going to be injured out for the whole year?”
The former champion’s torn labrum was accompanied by a groin injury as well, and having claimed that he’d be possibly out for a year, Daniel Cormier has expressed concern about his condition when he competes in the rematch, given that he’ll be back much earlier than he intended. While his striking is outstanding, ‘Suga’ suffered a lot during his first fight with Merab Dvalishvili due to the onslaught of takedown attempts. What ‘DC’ seems to be questioning is if O’Malley has found the time to not only get better at his defensive tactics at 100 percent, given that he’s also recovering from his injuries. If not, defeating ‘The Machine’ could be a tough ask at UFC 316.
“He said he was hurt. Remember, it was the rotator cuff or something that was messed up. He was so hurt. That was part of the reason he lost, and he was going to be away for a while trying to get healthy,” Daniel Cormier further stated. “Not only that, he lost because he couldn’t stop takedowns. What do you think he has done in the nine months since the fight to improve that, especially if he was hurt at the beginning of the recovery, where he couldn’t wrestle?”
“If you have a bad shoulder, you are not wrestling at the level that you need to wrestle in order to defeat Merab,” Daniel Cormier further stated while sending a warning signal to Sean O’Malley.
Credits: Imago
Meanwhile, Sean O’Malley opened up about his injury situation recently and gave us an idea of how different he will be this time in the rematch against Merab Dvalishvili. Here’s what he had to say.
Sean O’Malley claims he’s going to be ’70 percent’ better in the rematch at UFC 316
During a recent edition of The TimboSugar Show, Sean O’Malley revealed the experience he went through after he got injured before UFC 306. He mentioned suffering immense pain in his injured groin, and he was able to train while recovering, but couldn’t do it at his full capacity, admitting that fighting earlier than he expected to may not be a wise decision. “My groin kept me up at night… 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,” said O’Malley.
Despite the whole situation with his injury, the former bantamweight champion has assured his fans that they will be witnessing a way better fighter in him this time in his rematch. “I’m going to be 70 percent better than I was in that first fight. I’m going to be significantly more mobile, agile, better shape. I’m gonna fight at my full potential,” he added, as the anticipation for UFC 316 grows among fans.
Merab Dvalishvili was happy to hand Sean O’Malley his rematch because he’s confident that he could easily sail past ‘Suga’ if he continues to do what he always does, and that’s putting the pressure on his opponent. But can the former champ survive at UFC 316? Drop your comments below.
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