With Umar Nurmagomedov giving UFC bantamweight champion Merab Dvalishvili his toughest test in years, Sean O’Malley would love to see them run things back.
Dvalishvili (20-4 MMA, 13-2 UFC) defeated O’Malley (18-3 MMA, 10-3 UFC) a second time by submitting him in this past Saturday’s UFC 316 main event. Prior to that, Dvalishvili retained his title against Nurmagomedov at UFC 311, where he handed him his first loss.
Dvalishvili had to rally against Nurmagomedov (18-1 MMA, 6-1 UFC) after losing the first two rounds on two of the three judges’ scorecards. Nurmagomedov revealed that he broke his hand early, which has O’Malley wondering how a rematch would go.
“I feel like the Umar fight was very interesting,” O’Malley said on his YouTube channel. “If Umar really broke his hand in the first round. I remember watching that first round and was like, ‘Oh, f*ck, Umar is doing good.’ But also that’s just how good Merab is. I’m excited to see how that plays out, too.”
O’Malley’s co-host suggested he face Nurmagomedov next, but “The Suga Show” is looking to take some time off and doesn’t want to think about who’s next.
“Umar is f*cking super skilled. Everybody in the top 10, top 15 is so skilled,” O’Malley said. “It’s nice to not think about a fight right now because I do want to just chill for a few weeks. It’s way better. Even if the UFC said, ‘We know what we want to do (with you next),’ I don’t even want to know right now. Just let me chill for five.”