At, UFC Sphere, Sean O’Malley failed to defend his bantamweight belt against Merab Dvalishvili as ‘Machine’ completely dominated ‘Suga’ to clinch the bantamweight gold. As O’Malley faced the second crushing defeat of his career, he has decoded how his upcoming chapters in MMA will unfold. What are they? Stay tuned as we uncover those in today’s episode of Roundup.

We will also explore the champion Merab Dvalishvili’s mindset, who appears to have a message from the number #2 contender, Umar Nurmagomedov. Lastly, we will have a look at the updated P4P rankings and it packs a bomb for the MMA community. So, without any further ado, let us get started.

Sean O’Malley’s honest confession about his career

Sean O’Malley promised himself that he would win against Merab Dvalishvili by way of a knockout in the very first round but the opposite happened for the fighter as his lackluster performance at the UFC Sphere shocked everyone. He was completely shut down by the new bantamweight king on a miserable night. Well, after his deafening loss against ‘Machine’, O’Malley appeared in front of the world and asserted that he would not fight for quite some time.

“I probably won’t fight for 9 months, 10 months. Maybe a year. It’s gonna be a while. People are gonna have to watch the UFC without the Suga Show for a little bit,” said Sean O’Malley on his YouTube handle. It must be noted that champions often make this kind of decision because they need a long break after the pressure of defending their belt.

Israel Adesanya took a break from the Octagon after his loss against Sean Strickland. O’Malley stated that he might be out of action for a year but he might come back sooner. Regardless, now that we know the fate of the former UFC champion, let us move forward toward the new champion.

Umar Nurmagomedov challenges Merab Dvalishvili

After clinching the bantamweight belt from Sean O’Malley, Merab Dvalishvili was immediately asked about Umar Nurmagomedov inside the Octagon, but the Georgian fighter avoided the question and talked about Dana White. Regardless, at the post-fight press conference, ‘Machine’ asserted that he would like to fight Deiveson Figueiredo rather than Umar Nurmagomedov. “Whoever they want, I will fight next, but I want to talk to Dana, I want to become his friend… I want to fight the top of the top, you know. I think Figueredo would be my fifth champion. He is more dangerous, knockout power, good Jiu-Jitsu makes people [go to] sleep,” said Dvalishvili.

This statement by the champion appears to have irked the undefeated Dagestani, who took to his X handle to point out his hypocrisy, ”When Merab’s friend, Topuria fought for the title, after 6 consecutive wins, and beating only one top 5 ranked opponent Josh Emmet, I don’t remember that Merab was desperately protesting against such ‘unfairness’.”

Well, that’s not all as Nurmagomedov has asked Dvalishvili to not run from him, “I think I’m next. I hope they will not avoid and run.” Umar Nurmagomedov is the #2nd ranked bantamweight fighter and if there’s no immediate rematch, then he should be the one to get the title shot but everything lies in the hands of the promotion and the fighters. Let us now move forward to the UFC P4P rankings.

UFC p4p rankings elevate Merab Dvalishvili and Valentina Shevchenko

John Morgan shared the latest P4P rankings through his X handle and the MMA community might be in for a shock as Sean O’Malley is nearly out of the rankings table while on the other hand, the new bantamweight champion, Merab Dvalishvili’s position has been elevated. The latest rankings give the #7th position to the new bantamweight champion. However, the former champion has seen his standing fall of as he is now the #13th ranked P4P fighter.

Merab Dvalishvili is now ahead of Alexander Volkanovski, Max Holloway, Tom Aspinall, and Leon Edwards at the point table. Besides that, the new flyweight champion of the world, Valentina Shevchenko reclaims her number 1 P4P fighter status after defeating Alexa Grasso at the event, who is now ranked #3rd. UFC’s strawweight champion, Zhang Weili, occupies the number #2 spot.

That’s a huge update from the P4P ranking system. Regardless, what’s your take on today’s roundup? State your thoughts in the comments below.