Sean O’Malley will get a chance to try to reclaim the bantamweight title from Merab Dvalishvili in the main event of UFC 316 in New Jersey in a little over a week’s time, but Joe Rogan admits he has doubts about his ability to do so.
Rogan noted that O’Malley should be in better physical shape in the rematch after recent lifestyle changes and taking care of an existing injury, but even so, stylistically he feels it’s just a bad match-up for him.
“The Merab rematch with ‘Suga’ Sean, that’s an interesting fight,” Rogan said on his JRE podcast. “Very interesting fight. I do not know how Suga Sean keeps that guy off of him, but I do like what he’s been doing. Got off social media, stopped smoking weed, just dialed the f*ck in. Got his hip fixed, which was a big problem. There’s a lot of these fighters that take these fights because it’s a lot of money and it’s a big event and they don’t want to cancel and they’ve got a significant injury.
“Sean could not wrestle. Imagine not being able to wrestle in camp and then you’ve got to go face Merab. He’s a f*cking animal. That guy is superhuman. There’s no one like him. The cardio that guy has is off the charts. It’s just off the charts, I’ve never seen anything like it. He doesn’t get tired and he’s full gas, no brakes the entire fight. It’s just smothering, overwhelming people. Even Nurmagomedov, who’s also an animal, he couldn’t keep him off of him. This motherf*cker’s crazy.”
Rogan also recalled how Daniel Cormier saw first-hand how dedicated Dvalishvili is to preserving his remarkable cardio.
“When DC went to visit him on Sunday, the day after the fight, he’s out running,” Rogan said. “‘DC’ went to his house to congratulate him… and he’s like, ‘This motherf*cker’s out running.’ He’d just won the world title, and the next day he’s running. He’s an animal. He’s a f*cking animal.”
Dvalishvili’s results certainly speak for themselves as he’s now undefeated in 12 fights, but of course it would be wise to not completely overlook O’Malley given that he is the far more talented and dangerous fighter on the feet.
Whether Dvalishvili’s relentless pursuit of takedown attempts will give O’Malley any time to show what he can do remains to be seen though.
