Henry Cejudo makes feelings known on "bantamweight GOAT" Merab Dvalishvili's latest win over Sean O'Malley at UFC 316
Henry Cejudo recently shared his thoughts on Merab Dvalishvili's latest win over Sean O'Malley last Saturday at UFC 316. Cejudo credited Dvalishvili's game plan and effective striking as being an impressive takeaway from the bout.
Dvalishvili was aggressive with his pressure and mixed his striking and takedown attempts very well throughout the fight. Despite O'Malley's efforts, the Georgian managed to secure several takedowns and submitted him with a north-south choke in the third round to retain his bantamweight championship.
In the latest episode of his Pound 4 Pound podcast, Cejudo mentioned that 'The Machine' overwhelmed 'Suga' en route to his submission win and cemented his status at the bantamweight GOAT. He said:
"Sean was a bit beat up, dude. I wanna say [Dvalishvili] outstruck [O'Malley]. Not the crispest, not the cleanest but he did a really good job of just making Sean continue to keep fighting. Drowning him, putting him against the cage, taking him down... He's gone through O'Malley, Umar Nurmagomedov... 'Triple C', [Petr] Yan, [Jose] Aldo, [Marlon] Moraes. I mean, these are all former champs. It's time to just officially call him the GOAT, dude. The bantamweight GOAT."
Check out Henry Cejudo's comments regarding Merab Dvalishvili below:
Kamaru Usman shares thoughts on Merab Dvalishvili vs. Sean O'Malley at UFC 316
Kamaru Usman also chimed in on what transpired during the UFC 316 main event between Merab Dvalishvili and Sean O'Malley.
In the aforementioned clip, Usman mentioned that Dvalishvili did an excellent job pressuring O'Malley and noted that it resulted in the challenger being put in a position where he was forcing some of his strikes. He said:
"I think O'Malley looked really, really good because there were times in there where I was like, Merab has to be careful, he was still throwing strikes. I just think there was moments where he tried to force them because of all that pressure that Merab was putting on him. When you become the champion, you are so dialed in [that] you go out there and you dominate. Merab right now is just that kryptonite for him."
Check out the full episode below: