Ready for UFC 316?
I just didn’t feel like I was supposed to win that fight… – Sean O’Malley
It’s no secret that the UFC fan base has been disgruntled with the events, UFC schedule, and performances in 2025 thus far. And sure, we’ve been missing a lot of those “big fight feels,” and it seems like we’re starved of fighter beef, octagon savagery, and drama that we’re used to.
Well, summertime is upon us, and for Dana White and Co., the negative UFC rumors could quickly disperse based on the upcoming calendar, especially in June, as we have UFC 316 and UFC 317 coming up; two pay-per-view events stacked with high-profile fighters and fights!
We are spoiled the month of June! #UFC316 #UFC317 pic.twitter.com/mzaURQvt7L
— AO (@AlanOlivasMeta) June 2, 2025
Up first will be Saturday’s UFC 316 from Newark, New Jersey, where the long-awaited return of ‘Suga’ Sean O’Malley will see him challenge Merab Dvalishvili in a rematch for the bantamweight gold, which the latter took from the former last year.
With that said, I’m back to rant and rave about the ongoing debate heading into Dvalishvili vs. O’Malley II, and per usual, I think it’s time we look at the good, the bad, and the ugly.
Two of the best at bantamweight 💪@MerabDvalishvil & @SugaSeanMMA are running it back in Newark! 💥
[ B2YB: @WolfpakTrust | #UFC316 ] pic.twitter.com/EQClkglv84— UFC (@ufc) June 3, 2025
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Merab Dvalishvili vs. Sean O’Malley: The Good
Contrary to widespread belief, when Sean O’Malley lost the bantamweight title to Merab Dvalishvili at UFC 306 last September, the fight was won on some very small margins, and the word ‘dominance’ cannot be used for everyone’s favorite Georgian regarding his performance on the night.
Casual viewers of the sport will only remember this fight from their eye test on the night. However, re-watching the contest and considering the 10-point must-score system will show that just a handful of significant strikes in round one could’ve swayed the judges to give Suga the nod.
Should O’Malley have been given round one, and in turn, the win, an outrage from the MMA community using the word ‘robbery’ would have probably been valid; that’s just how the cookie crumbles when we viewers forget that a fight is scored round by round, not as a whole.
The gas tank of @MerabDvalishvil seems to never go empty ⛽️
He puts his bantamweight title on the line for the second time at #UFC316! pic.twitter.com/6gjobq7zP5
— UFC (@ufc) June 4, 2025
In my opinion, and in the opinion of many other experts who’ve carefully re-watched the first fight, O’Malley won rounds 3 and 5, with Merab taking 1,2, and 4. However, round one was much closer than you may remember, and that’s what makes this rematch so intriguing, so hyped, and so damn good!
On the topic of intrigue, whilst good, should Saturday’s fight leave O’Malley coming up short, it could also be very bad…
‘The Machine’ vs. ‘Suga’: The Bad
Bad, why?
Well, it’s pretty simple… The excuses will have been exhausted. Unless Suga has some undisclosed injuries that will be announced post-fight, he otherwise seems to be more focused and in the best shape of his life. Therefore, losing at UFC 316 would not only leave him as the lesser-talented fighter of the two, but it would damage his star moving forward and potentially put him on a similar and awkward projectory akin to what we’ve seen in Israel Adesanya’s career.
This brings us to a list of excuses, some more valid than others, that O’Malley and his coach, Tim Welch, have discussed in recent UFC news.
Sean O’Malley can’t shake the strange energy he gets from the owls living around him:🦉🦉
“I randomly got an owl tattoo on my chest. It was the first Petr Yan fight. I sat outside, watched the sunset, and an owl came and flew and sat on the branch by me. I was so scared to look… pic.twitter.com/vmqJ4QYBHt
— Red Corner MMA (@RedCorner_MMA) May 30, 2025
No social media, no jerking, no consumption of cannabis, and a clear focus on the fight game.
However, the oddest comment involved a dead owl. I know, it’s strange, but O’Malley had claimed that he’d been seeing owls everywhere for some time, and with an owl tattooed on his chest, the former champ felt a connection to the animal. But a week out from UFC 306, he felt like “bad omens” were showing him that he wasn’t supposed to win:
“Ten days before the Merab fight, there was a dead owl in my driveway,” Suga said. “I didn’t wanna think about that, and it sounds crazy, but I just didn’t feel like I was supposed to win that fight.”
Dead owls and not smoking joints are one thing, and we can all laugh at that, but having a torn labrum is another, and obviously, the most valid excuse of them all. Suga did require surgery on the said injury, surgery that he has now completed.
Merab Dvalishvili: “He was injured. Now, he’s saying he 70% better. I want to see that.”
Sean O’Malley: “It’s an excuse. Call it what you want, but I fought Merab with one leg.”#UFC316 pic.twitter.com/xSH8DMbLaV
— MMA Fighting (@MMAFighting) April 11, 2025
One more excuse for the joke book?
“Sean didn’t even spread his arms in the octagon during the fighter announcements,” Tim Welch said during an interview, referring to O’Malley’s in-cage celebration that we see him act out during most fights.
So, the sheer number of excuses is amusing for the most part, but with no injuries and all excuses cleared up for the rematch, there will be no more bad excuses for O’Malley should he suffer defeat to Merab in back-to-back fights!
📱🌈Sean O’Malley reveals that his decision to quit social media wasn’t to beat Merab:
“All these decision wasn’t performance based. I don’t think that my last camp was affected because I was on social media.
I chose to do all those staff for more inner peace.”
🎥 @MightyMouse… pic.twitter.com/B44vBs6YZw
— Home of Fight (@Home_of_Fight) June 3, 2025
Merab vs O’Malley: The Ugly
Sh*t could get ugly, but to be completely frank, most of that ugliness is pointing towards O’Malley. If he loses, as one of the UFC’s biggest stars, where does he go from consecutive losses to Merab? He certainly won’t have an argument to challenge for the 135 lb gold anytime soon.
And then, even if O’Malley wins, unless it’s completely dominant behind an early knockout, it’s highly likely that Merab will have valid reasoning for an instant rematch, thus meaning Suga will need to defeat him twice to move on in the division.
REMATCH LOADING…👀@MerabDvalishvil & @SugaSeanMMA go at it once again for the bantamweight title at #UFC316!
Get tickets 👉 https://t.co/Z2l1iSikuA | @Visit_NJ pic.twitter.com/f0fUH96P62
— UFC (@ufc) April 20, 2025
The biggest concern must be for the promotion and what moves they will make if O’Malley loses. He isn’t quite on the level of Conor McGregor (nobody is), but he’s undoubtedly one of their biggest assets when it comes to putting butts in seats, and considering the current landscape of UFC fights and it’s struggles for star power, I can’t help but believe they’ll be desperate for a Suga redemption story to play out in NJ this weekend.
While this isn’t necessarily about picking sides, it’s certainly about good business, and although Merab has a devoted fan base of his own, that grinding, wrestling, decision-based style isn’t the best for business, thus giving the UFC an ugly predicament to deal with should another one of their stars fall victim to a losing streak.
