Sean O’Malley, who is known for his vibrant color scheme choices and ludicrous personality, has been the reigning bantamweight champ for some time now. But everything changed at Noche UFC when the Montana native lost his belt to Georgian fighter Merab Dvalishvili. Even though the former is known as one of the deadliest strikers in UFC, he could not stand his ground against ‘The Machine’. But why?

What strategy did he use that backfired this time? ‘Suga’ had dismantled Marlon ‘Chito’ Vera at their UFC 299 rematch and was untouchable by his opponent with the same striking prowess. That performance even impressed UFC champion and GOAT contender Demetrious ‘Mighty Mouse’ Johnson. However, the same admirer, criticized ‘Suga’s’ stance for UFC 306 this time after witnessing the fight and pointed out the mistakes that were glaring at him.

Demetrius Johnson dissected the UFC 306 upset of Sean O’Malley and why it happened

Johnson made one thing very clear: Merab Dvalishvili fought on his own terms. He was the one who dominated the ‘dance’ inside the octagon till the end and did not let ‘Suga’ take the lead. What Johnson noticed was that O’Malley was ‘looking’ for an opening with ‘The Machine’ rather than ‘finding’ the opening to strike.  He said, “Merab was a better and more physical athlete in this fight. Merab could out-whistle sugar Sean O’Malley. That’s what Merab does, that’s what he did. So, this was the interesting thing about this fight ‘Suga’ Sean O’Malley was content with going to the body. Throwing the two to the body. I’m not sure why they did that especially since he has the range advantage and the height advantage.”

So according to the former UFC Flyweight Champion, whenever a fighter is in an advantage with height, they generally have a range advantage as well. So, the person with a taller height would get lower and look to stock their ‘prey’ and jab to force the shorter opponent to make a bad shot. However, Tim Welch and Sean O’Malley went with the cross of the body shot which was confusing to Johnson.

Another thing DJ noticed is that Welch told O’Malley to ‘find’ Dvalishvili. DJ said, “And typically when you’re trying to find somebody in a fight, you’re not gonna find him because you’re searching for them. But if you burn all of the bushes, you’re going to have the person exposed.” So the fighter should ‘invite the shot in’ by coming lower and taking the strikes while searching for an opening and then attacking. Ultimately ‘Suga’ did not take the fight on his terms like his opponent did. This was a mistake by ‘Suga’ according to DJ; he did not invite the shot. However, this criticism does not mean Johnson does not see the good stylistic aspects in ‘Suga’s’ fighting prowess.

Demetrius Johnson gave Sean O’Malley a useful compliment before UFC 306

Johnson, who has been a YouTuber over the past year after reigning over UFC, sat down and analyzed Sean O’Malley’s style ahead of the UFC 306 title defense. He was watching UFC 299 and saw one of the best moments where the champ caught ‘Chito’ on his chin and gave a resounding knee jab. DJ analyzed the movements of ‘Suga’ before the strike and concluded how the former champ used the knee move.

“He’s [Sean O’Malley is] a master of the Void [distance management]. There’s a void right here [describing O’Malley’s UFC 299 fight with ‘Chito’ Vera], he wants ‘Chito’ to come across the distance and overextend so he can capitalize on it. Feint, feint, feint. Feint again, he’s getting reactions, he’s looking he’s creating openings from his feints,” ‘Mighty Mouse ‘said.

DJ was awestruck by how O’Malley used distance management and feints and how he examined his opponent. ‘Suga’ scanned his opponent’s movements and retained information on how ‘Chito’ reacted to the feints. Then he finally strategized the knee jab. Johnson was impressed so much so that he declared ‘Suga’ to be the ‘Feint God’! However, this time, he might not have studied Georgian fighter, properly and did not use his feints effectively. Dvalishvili’s impressive grappling skills were a pressure point for ‘Suga’ and Dvalishvili’s quality of mixing takedowns with ground control left no ‘void’ for O’Malley to stand and fight.

Now, O’Malley is forced to take another fight or two before jumping into title contention. Are you excited to see what happens next? Let us know in the comments.