Watch: UFC champion Dvalishvili opens door to O’Malley rematch

UFC bantamweight champion Merab Dvalishvili says that there is only one man at 135-pounds who deserves a shot at him: Sean O’Malley.

The Georgian fighter handed O’Malley just the second loss of his mixed martial arts career in September, defeating the former champion by unanimous decision in the UFC 306 main event in Las Vegas to increase his winning streak in the organisation to 11.

And if he is to get to 12, that will come in the shape of a second victory over ‘Suga’ — and more specifically, not against the 18-0 Umar Nurmagomedov who has been campaigning to be Dvalishvili’s first title defence.



“I’m not scared of no one, only God,” Dvalishvili said alongside Alexander Volkanovski at a fighter Q&A in Abu Dhabi’s Etihad Arena on the eve of UFC 308 — the 20th time that the fight league has visited the United Arab Emirates.

“Where is this guy? He’s taking [another] fight. He’s scared,” he added of Nurmagomedov, as noted by MMA Fighting. He’s fighting somebody else. Where is [he]? Where is [he]? Tell me. He wants to get knocked out by somebody else, and then he’s going to make excuse. He’s not going to make this fight. I’m not making fight. Dana White and Hunter [Campbell] make decision who I’m going to fight next. I don’t know. I don’t make decision. I never make decision.”

That said, if his next bout agreement reads the name ‘Nurmagomedov’ and not ‘O’Malley’, Dvalishvili will certainly sign his name to it.

“If Dana White tells me I have to fight Umar, I’m fighting Umar, OK?,’ Dvalishvili said. “But, you know what? Umar doesn’t deserve to fight me. Sean O’Malley deserves to fight me, and I’m going to rematch him. He deserves it, and after, Umar has to prove [himself], and I will fight him.”