The verdict may be clear to judges and fans alike—Sean O’Malley was dominated by Merab Dvalishvili in their UFC 306 title clash last week. However, in true “Suga” fashion, O’Malley isn’t buying it. Despite showing remarkable sportsmanship immediately after the fight, the newly-dethroned bantamweight champion has made it clear that he believes the outcome should have gone his way.

Why? According to O’Malley, he believes he won three of the five rounds—specifically the first, third, and fifth—and that the decision was skewed by biased commentary and judging. In his eyes, the fight was his, but external forces tipped the scales in Dvalishvili’s favor.

“The narrative around this f—ing fight was that I got my a– whooped. I’m gonna ask the UFC if they will please post that fight on YouTube. I won the first, third, and fifth rounds. And I challenge all you f—ing dorks that think that I got my a– kicked to go and rewatch that fight with the commentary off and tell me I did not win that fight… I’m the champ, I won! Let’s go!” an impassioned O’Malley declared on a recent Twitter Space with his fans.

O’Malley’s bold claim adds another layer of intrigue to what was already a highly anticipated bout. However, ‘Suga’s opinion was not shared by the judges, nor borne out by the stats for the fight. But, O’Malley’s feeling hard done by the judges is not an outlandish claim if one looks at the round-by-round breakdown of how the first, third, and fifth rounds of the Dvalishvili fight went.

First round going Merab’s way doomed Sean O’Malley victory prospects at UFC 306

The first two rounds of O’Malley’s UFC 306 clash against Merab Dvalishvili clearly belonged to ‘Suga’. After all, not only did ‘The Machine’ dominate the Montana native on the ground, but also managed to outstrike him– landing almost three times more strikes on the sublime striker in the second round!

And unsurprisingly, these two rounds were scored for Dvalishvili- both by the judges and by media outlets. However, it is worth noting that the first round was close, at least on the feet. But ‘The Machine’ did have over a minute of control time on the ground in the inaugural round, which tipped the scales in his favor.

As far as the third round is concerned, O’Malley has a much better case. After all, two of the judges’ felt ‘Suga’ did enough and scored the round in his favor, even if the Georgian landed more and had just under a minute of control time.

As far as the final round is concerned, ‘Suga’ tried his best to go for the kill and had his best round in the fight, winning it clearly and without any doubt on the judges’ scorecard. Alas, that wasn’t enough and the reigning champ became the former champion with two judges scoring the fight 48-47 for ‘The Machine’, while one scored four rounds for the Georgian and one for the American to reach a final tally of 49-46 for the former. Is this just a case of post-fight frustration, or does ‘Suga’ have a point? Let us know what you think—was O’Malley robbed, or was Dvalishvili the rightful winner? Drop your thoughts in the comments!