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Merab Dvalishvili recently opened up about Sean O'Malley's successful bantamweight title defense at UFC 299 and voiced his displeasure with how he handled his post-fight interview.
'The Machine' is believed to be the next contender in line to challenge 'Sugar' for the bantamweight championship after earning an impressive unanimous decision win over former two-division champion Henry Cejudo. But, O'Malley decided to turn his attention to featherweight champion Ilia Topuria in an attempt at double champ status instead.
While speaking to MMA Fighting, the 33-year-old mentioned that he was disappointed that 'Sugar' didn't do anything to help generate more interest in them fighting each other. He said:
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"He's [Sean O'Malley] still not mentioning my name and he's still I don't want to say ducking me or something but come on, bro. Let's build this fight, you know? We're gonna fight and let's build this fight and let's make [it] even bigger...You are champion...Give division respect. You know, you gotta fight the best of the best, you gotta fight the number one contenders, especially I'm here waiting." [5:20 - 6:10]
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Check out the full interview below:
Merab Dvalishvili claims Sean O'Malley needs to defend his title after his recent performance
Merab Dvalishvili claimed that Sean O'Malley's recent unanimous decision win over Marlon Vera at UFC 299 should be a sign that he needs to remain at bantamweight and defend his title.
During the aforementioned interview, 'The Machine' noted that 'Sugar' defended his title against the No.6-ranked bantamweight because it would allow him to avenge his previous loss. He mentioned that the champion needs to respect the 135-pound division and not avoid matchups with the number-one contenders. He said:
"It's way too early [to] go somewhere especially with this performance against number-six guy, it wasn't [a] knockout...He [Sean O'Malley] don't even clean this division. I'm here. Cory Sandhagen is here...He has to fight the guys here, you know? How he's gonna disrespect everybody? Come on, he has to be [a] real champion." [15:00 - 15:28]
