"It wasn't genuine" - Sean O'Malley admits he faked beef with Merab Dvalishvili ahead of first fight
Sean O'Malley recently opened up about his upcoming rematch against Merab Dvalishvili and admitted that he didn't truly have animosity with him in their first bout. O'Malley noted that he is focused to regain the bantamweight championship and will be staying true to himself.
O'Malley and Dvalishvili last competed against each other in the main event of Noche UFC 306, which was a spectacle as the promotion celebrated Mexican Independence Day at Sphere in Las Vegas. 'The Machine' would utilize his incredible cardio and wrestling to dictate the pace of the fight en route to earning a unanimous decision win to become the new champion.
In his latest appearance on the Full Send Podcast, O'Malley admitted that he faked his beef with Dvalishvili because he performed very well in his previous bout against Marlon Vera, who he had animosity with. 'Suga' mentioned that he forced himself to have animosity and won't be taking that approach for their rematch at UFC 316. He said:
"I was like, I'm gonna carry that [animosity from Vera fight] into the Merab [fight]. I almost forced myself to not like Merab, but it wasn't genuine... And this camp, I have nothing against Merab. I want to go out there and compete because I love to compete. I'm an athlete, I'm a high level performer. I want to go out there and put on a beautiful performance because I love this sport not, necessarily because I don't like Merab."
Check out Sean O'Malley's comments below (6:28):
Sean O'Malley dealt with an injury ahead of UFC 306 bout against Merab Dvalishvili
Sean O'Malley also discussed dealing with an injury when training for his first bout against Merab Dvalishvili at Noche UFC 306 last September.
In the aforementioned episode, O'Malley mentioned that although he was limited with how he was able to train, he took Dvalishvili seriously and was focused:
"I tore my hip before the fight, ten weeks before the fight. The whole training camp, I was dealing with that. It wasn't ideal... Merab is not someone you could have a halfa** training camp with. I was very disciplined. I was dialed, I was not slacking anywhere that camp." [7:31]
Check out Merab Dvalishvili's post-fight interview following his win over Sean O'Malley below: