Merab Dvalishvili Submits Sean O'Malley to Retain Bantamweight Title at UFC 316

Merab Dvalishvili canceled the Sugar Show and retained his UFC bantamweight title again with a third-round submission win over Sean O'Malley in the UFC 316 main event.

Dvalishvili wasted no time in going back to what worked in their first fight. He applied constant pressure from the opening bell, took down O’Malley and earned a decisive lead. 

The second round saw much more striking, but still wound up being a strong round for Dvalishvili. He forced O’Malley onto his back foot with a lot of volume and wound up countering a lot of O’Malley’s attempted offense. 

He continued to erase any opportunity for O’Malley to get any offense in as the fight wore on. Eventually, O’Malley’s defense wore down which allowed Dvalishvili to lock in a choke and get his first stoppage victory since 2021. 

Dvalishvili doesn't always get his due, but he earned a lot of respect with another dominant victory.

Dvalishvili started his title reign with a win over O'Malley at UFC 306. Now, he can definitely say he owns the rivalry with a 2-0 record against the talented O'Malley.

There are a few options for Dvalishvili moving forward. One thing we can probably rule out is a move up to 145 pounds any time soon. While it's commonplace for champions to look to the next division these days, Dvalishvili has publicly stated he has no interest in goin up to meet Alexander Volkanovski at featherweight.

“I don’t want to take a big risk, I’m good. Even though this weight cut sucks I’d rather kill myself to make this weight and be comfortable here," he told Fox Sports Australia (h/t Farah Hannoun of MMA Junkie). "I’m good, I don’t want to [fight Volkanovski]. Then we can cook peacefully and wish each other the best.”

For now, it looks like Dvalishvili will be content to keep building his case as one of the all-time great bantamweights. He already has wins over O'Malley, Henry Cejudo, Petr Yan, Jose Aldo and Marlon Moraes.

There aren't many challenges left for him to overcome. A bout with Cory Sandhagen could be interesting, but the other options probably involve some rematches.