Next month, Sean O’Malley is going to attempt to become a two-time UFC bantamweight champion if he can regain the belt from current titleholder Merab Dvalishvili in the main event of UFC 316 in Newark, New Jersey.
Although Cory Sandhagen’s immediate focus lies ahead by beating former Flyweight Champion Deiveson Figueiredo in the main event of UFC Des Moines Saturday night, he couldn’t ignore the division’s biggest upcoming fight when speaking with arguable flyweight GOAT Demetrious Johnson during a recent episode of Johnson’s “MightyCast”.
Sandhagen sees the fight playing out awfully similarly to their Noche UFC encounter last September, which saw Dvalishvili earn a decision win to become the new champion. However, there is a slight caveat to potentially shift the series’ direction: O’Malley’s effortless striking ability as he sits in close range.
“O’Malley’s real shot at winning this thing is a puncher’s chance, kind of,” Sandhagen said. “Merab is going to take O’Malley down a number of times in this next fight. O’Malley’s ability to get up was really bad in his first fight with Merab. He was doing steps that he could have just – there’s better ways to stand up than the ways he was going about doing it.”
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Sandhagen said if O’Malley is smart enough to avoid harm’s way, it’s a different fight entirely. Especially, Sandhagen says, if it remains on the feet.
“O’Malley wants to put your lights out type of guy, and if he just continues to try to put Merab’s lights out, I think that’s just going to weigh against him. I think he [really needs] to control the pace of the fight, the scoring piece of the standup, so that if he does get taken down and he gets back up, he can start to engage.”
As far as a prediction is concerned, Sandhagen said it’s a matter of whether either camp’s gameplan begins to take control early.
A coin flip of sorts.
“I don’t even think that he has to bring it to Merab, he just has to just try to counter him, but not counter and reset a thousand times,” Sandhagen said about O’Malley. “He just has to stand there, defend the shots as best he can, and when Merab gets close to him, just hit him.”
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For now, only time will tell.
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