"Getting a little bit older" - Sean O'Malley discusses why Merab Dvalishvili defeated Henry Cejudo convincingly at UFC 298
UFC bantamweight king Sean O'Malley has shared his thoughts on the 135-pound clash that recently went down between Merab Dvalishvili and Henry Cejudo.
The two athletes locked horns on the main card of UFC 298. 'The Machine' proved himself to be the better fighter and scored a unanimous decision victory. All three judges scored the bout 29-28 in favor of the Georgian.
O'Malley recently did an interview with Ariel Helwani for The MMA Hour, where he discussed the fight. 'Sugar' shared that he heard rumors about Cejudo having issues in his training camp that might have contributed to his loss at UFC 298.
The UFC champion added that age might have also played a factor in 'Triple C's' defeat on Feb. 17:
"I was hearing rumors on the fight day that, 'Hey, Henry didn't have a great camp... Henry didn't get to spar, didn't get to train as much as he wanted to.' So, with that being said, you can't go into a fight not 100 percent against Merab. Merab is a machine. He's on a 10-fight win streak. He's f**king good. So yeah, I wasn't surprised when I heard that. Henry is getting a little bit older. If he's done, he's done, you know?"
Check out Sean O'Malley's comments from the 5:00 mark below:
Merab Dvalishvili wants to be the backup for Sean O'Malley's next fight
Sean O'Malley is set to defend his title for the first time soon. He will take on Marlon Vera in a rematch at UFC 299. The event will take place on March 9 at the Kaseya Center in Miami, Florida.
Merab Dvalishvili has expressed his interest in becoming the backup fighter for that clash. During the same interview with Helwani, the Georgian was asked for his thoughts on possibly being offered the aforementioned position for the UFC 299 main event.
Dvalishvili said that although no such offer has yet been made by the UFC, he would take it without any hesitation:
"I am crazy. I am crazy. I will take it, no problem.... No, they no offer me, but in press conference, somebody ask Dana [White] and he said, 'Hey, we will see.'"
Check out his comments from the 6:00 mark below: