Sean O’Malley responds to ‘terrified’ Merab Dvalishvili wanting Petr Yan

Sean O’Malley has doubled down on his claim as UFC bantamweight champion Merab Dvalishvili to be afraid of Omar Nurmagomedov.

After Peter Jan (18-5 MMA, 10-4 UFC) defeated Deiveison Figueiredo in a Fight of the Night battle in Saturday’s UFC Fight Night 248 headliner in Macau, from him call was accepted by Dvalishvili (18-4 MMA, 11-2 UFC), who praised him for his performance. That was the impetus for Nurmagomedov, who, unlike Yan, would pose a new challenge for Dvalishvili. “The Machine” has already defeated Yan unilateral decision during their March 2023 main event.

“Umar wants to fight Merab in January,” O’Malley said on his “TimboSuga Show” podcast. “Petr wants to fight Merab in March. I want to fight Merab in April. Merab becomes completely terrified of Umar. He doesn’t want to fight Umar. Now he says he wants to fight Petr. He wanted to fight me. Petr got 50-45 against Merab.’

O’Malley lost his bantamweight title to Dvalishvili last September at UFC 306. His head coach, Tim Welch, thinks Dvalishvili as champion is not good for the bantamweight division.

“Just think how exciting and enlightened the division would be if Merab wasn’t a part of it,” Welch said. “That’s not disrespect. The guy is very good at getting into those positions and getting through the fight. But man, it would have been lit. But the guy is a serious problem.”

For more information about the card, visit MMA Junkie’s events hub UFC Fight Night 248.