“The people started booing” - Merab Dvalishvili details Aljamain Sterling’s mistakes against Sean O'Malley

Ranked at No.2 in the UFC’s bantamweight division, Merab Dvalishvili is understandably looking for a title shot in the near future.

Prior to this summer, the idea of ‘The Machine’ fighting for bantamweight gold seemed unlikely given that his friend and teammate Aljamain Sterling was the reigning champion in the division.

However, while it’s doubtful that Merab Dvalishvili would’ve enjoyed seeing ‘The Funk Master’ lose his crown to Sean O'Malley at UFC 292, the result did move him closer to securing his own title shot.

This week has seen the native of Georgia discuss the fight between O'Malley and Sterling in an appearance on Ariel Helwani’s The MMA Hour. Unsurprisingly, Dvalishvili had some fascinating things to say, stating the following:

“With O’Malley, Aljo win the first round, and O'Malley was keep running back, and Aljo...the people started booing, and Aljo make decision to make exciting fight...and Aljo chose to throw some punch and make some mistake and...O'Malley throw his right hand...I was heartbroken, man.”

Watch Merab Dvalishvili discuss the fight between Aljamain Sterling and Sean O'Malley below.

For his part, Sterling has stated similar things to Dvalishvili regarding his defeat at the hands of ‘Sugar’.

In an interview that took place almost directly after the fight, ‘The Funk Master’ also claimed that he didn’t want the fight to be boring, and let “trying to be a little bit more of an exciting style for the fans play a factor” in his loss.

Watch Aljamain Sterling discuss this below.

---

Aljamain Sterling vs. Sean O'Malley: What happens to ‘The Funk Master’ if Merab Dvalishvili gets a title shot?

Since he lost his bantamweight title to Sean O'Malley at UFC 292, Aljamain Sterling has been shooting for a rematch with ‘Sugar’ that doesn’t appear to be forthcoming.

The question of who will get the next shot at O'Malley’s title remains up in the air, with Marlon Vera, who stopped ‘Sugar’ in 2020, reportedly being a front-runner.

However, Merab Dvalishvili still remains near the front of the queue too. If ‘The Machine’ were to claim the title, then, what would happen to Sterling?

Interestingly, ‘The Funk Master’ recently addressed this exact issue, claiming that if his teammate were to win the gold, then he would be “in limbo” and would consider moving to 145lbs for his next fight.