Sean O’Malley Hilariously Defends UFC 306 Judges After Merab Dvalishvili Raises Concern; Fans React

Sean O’Malley seems to have a different take on what happened at UFC 306 inside the Octagon! The bantamweight title clash between him and Merab Dvalishvili ended with the Georgian claiming the belt via unanimous decision. Sounds right? Well, ‘Suga’ doesn’t agree with the scorecards or the fact that the scoring for the fight has already raised many eyebrows in the MMA sphere.

In a recent post on social media, the former champion gave his own round-by-round analysis of the fight, and let’s just say, the fans weren’t buying it. O’Malley, in his signature humorous style, laid out why he believes he won the fight. “I literally won that round. It wasn’t even that controversial,” he confidently stated while referring to the first round. And sure he didn’t stop there.

With a mix of sarcasm and frustration, he went on to declare, “Round 4, this is a f*king close fight. 2-2, going into the fifth.” According to O’Malley, the fight wasn’t the blowout people thought, and stated, “I challenge all you f*king dorks that think that I got my a* kicked to go and re-watch that fight, tell me I’m wrong! Round 1, 3 and 5, I won that fight.”

Well, the fans took up the challenge immediately and flooded the comment section with their responses. Here’s a look at what the netizens had to say about Sean O’Malley’s breakdown of his UFC 306 fight!

Fans take up Sean O’Malley’s “challenge” and hand the former champion a reality check

Many fans found it funny that Sean O’Malley is claiming that UFC 306 was a “close fight”. A look at the UFC stats for the clash shows that Merab Dvalishvili landed 82 of 164 significant strikes and a total of 214 of 310 strikes. Combine that with the 6 of 15 takedowns landed by the Georgian and 10 minutes of control time, it’s hard not to take O’Malley’s claims with a pinch or maybe even a pound of salt!

“Close fight?… i love sean, but that ain’t no close fight”

After all, even if O’Malley claims that he isn’t ‘biased’, the fans have found it hard to take his claims of objectivity seriously.

“No bias” Sean is so funny haha”

The scoring for the bout was also brought up by the community. In fact, during the post-fight interview, Joe Rogan had asked the newly crowned champion Dvalishvili, “Were you surprised how close the judges scored it?”. The fact that O’Malley had won rounds 3 and 5 on two of the judges’ cards was the reason behind the shock but ‘The Machine’ responded by simply stating, “No, I don’t pay attention because sometimes we so crazy judges scored and it’s MMA we don’t know sometimes how they score…”

“Should be glad that the refs had Merab 48-47. There is no question that it was 40-36 going into the final round”

Some fans were a bit more grounded as they suggested that O’Malley’s recent claims might be more about setting up the storyline for his return to the cage and possibly re-match Dvalishvili. While that remains to be seen, O’Malley has also revealed recently that he’ll be out of action for a while as he explained to streamer Adin Ross, “I have surgery on Oct. 3. I tore my left labrum in my hip. That’s the only reason I’m going to be out for so long… could be six to eight months. You never know.”

“He just wants a rematch. He’s selling the next fight . He was humble for 5 seconds at least”

But one fan humorously pointed out that ‘Suga’ might be coming to terms with the loss in his own unique way, through humor, sarcasm, and a bit of exaggeration.

“dude is speed running the stages of grief”

Despite the mixed reactions, it’s clear that Sean O’Malley knows how to keep people talking. Whether or not his breakdown holds any weight in the grand scheme of things, the conversation it sparked shows just how much influence he has over the MMA community.  Now, with his return hinging upon the recovery from his surgery, it remains to be seen if he can find himself back in the title picture or if the bantamweight division will see another champion being crowned while he is away! Do you think Sean O’Malley can re-claim the 135 lbs. title in the future? Why or Why not? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!