Sean O’Malley is already an established name in the UFC, being the reigning Bantamweight Champion of the world as well as #6 in the UFC men’s pound-for-pound rankings. After a successful title defense, O’Malley’s self-esteem is soaring as he’s ready to fight anyone and everyone.
Sean has been toying with the idea of fighting against pro boxers and has even challenged the legend Floyd Mayweather himself. Meanwhile, Merab Dvalishvili was furious when he got to learn that O’Malley had called out Topuria, while not answering to his own challenge.
Merab Dvalishvili wants Sean O’Malley bout next
The Georgian Bantamweight fighter Merab Dvalishvili had been calling out Sean for a fight for quite a long time now, but O’Malley just seemed to always ignore Merab. Merab Dvalishvili was not happy at all with the fact that Sean hasn’t responded to him in years while he goes and calls out other fighters.
Recently after defending his Bantamweight Championship title, Sean called out Ilia Topuria for a fight, which further enraged Merab. Merab responded to O’Malley victory and challenge for Topuria. “He’s just defend his belt only once and now I’m the next. But, I don’t know. Somehow he’s not mentioning my name and he’s not calling me out and don’t make this fight, big fight, like even bigger fight,” Dvalishvili told MMA Junkie.
Having a record of 17-4-0, it’s only fair that Merab gets a shot at the title. Merab Dvalishvili has defeated UFC greats like Jose Aldo in UFC 278 and Henry Cejudo in UFC 298 being his latest fight, which ranked him #1 in the UFC Bantamweight rankings as of Feb 20, 2024.
Being a deserving title-shott contender, Merab is not very keen on the idea of Sean fighting Topuria next, and instead, wants a title fight to be arranged between them.
“Now let’s move on and let’s fight me… I was mad actually. Like, he don’t call me out or he called Ilia. We all see Ilia and UFC don’t give a s*** about this.” Merab added. “He’s just ignoring me since 2018,” was Merab Dvalishvili’s bottom line.
Sean O’Malley challenges Ilia Topuria
Following his title defense against Marlon Vera in UFC 299, Sean O’Malley went on to call out Ilia Topuria, who had defeated Alexander Volkanovski to gain the UFC Featherweight Champion Title. Topuria is aware of Merab’s callouts that have gone ignored for the past few years and raised it against Sean, rejecting his call outs.
The chances of a fight with Ilia Topuria are very slim as Topuria is not keen on the idea of fighting Sean. Merab getting a title shot against O’Malley is a more reasonable fight and fans might see a Sean vs Topuria fight in the future, which will be one for the books.
Who do you think Sean will fight next? Topuria or Merab? Or will it be someone else? Let us know your thoughts by commentsa below.
