“I just got beat. There was nothing. Everyone keeps asking me, ‘Something seemed off, something different, you were flat-footed.’ I was like, there was nothing. Zero excuses,” Sean O’Malley would say of his UFC 306 loss to Merab Dvalishvili. As you can tell from this quote, the former champ’s clash against Dvalishvili last September proved to be an absolute disaster. The worst that could happen happened as ‘The Machine’ toyed with the Montana native throughout the fight.

And to make matters worse, everything went remarkably well for O’Malley before the fight. No bad camp, the weight cut went as smoothly as it could. No, the rainbow-haired striking maestro just got beat by the better man and his world-class wrestling on the night. Dvalishvili totally shut down O’Malley with his incredible cardio and smothering wrestling skills and won a well-deserved unanimous decision on their historic ‘Noche’ card at the iconic ‘Sphere’ in Las Vegas. This led to many believing that O’Malley needed to work on his wrestling before taking on ‘The Machine’ again.

However, O’Malley seems not to have paid heed to any of that advice, as MMA journalist ‘KevinK’ has claimed that Dana White and Co. are targeting Merab Dvalishvili vs. Sean O’Malley 2 for UFC 316 this June. We did know that this fight was coming, with the Georgian having confirmed the rematch with ‘Suga’ in an interview a few days ago. “It’s happening, yeah. I don’t know about a time yet, but it’s happening,” Dvalishvili told ‘Clockednloaded’ at a recent Power Slap event.

And if KevinK’s claims are true, we do know when it’s happening! On June 7 at UFC 316 in Newark, New Jersey. But of course, this is just a rumor at this point. And until Dana White and Co. make an official announcement, not to be taken as a fact. And while most are busy discussing whether or not O’Malley can beat Dvalishvili, another bantamweight star is asking whether ‘Suga’ deserves the title rematch at all.

Cory Sandhangen explains why Sean O’Malley getting a title rematch

Sean O’Malley hasn’t fought anyone since his UFC 306 loss to Dvalishvili. On the other hand, ‘The Machine’ has been busier, and defended his title against the prodigious Umar Nurmagomedov at UFC 311 this January. And what a fight it was. While the Dagestani dominated the earlier rounds, ‘The Machine’ made a comeback for the ages in the latter rounds to take another unanimous decision win.

Moreover, Umar broke his hand during the fight. This may have been one of the reasons Dvalishvili dominated the latter rounds. But despite all these extenuating factors, Umar is not getting an immediate rematch. The UFC has turned to O’Malley for the rematch who was dominated by Dvalishvili in their first fight. And that doesn’t sit well with #4 ranked bantamweight, Cory Sandhagen, who explained why ‘Suga’ has got another title shot, despite not deserving it.

“I’m not surprised – we all know why. O’Malley has a really big following. That’s the reason. Umar and Merab’s fight was much closer than O’Malley and Merab’s fight. If you were going to give a rematch to anyone you would probably give it to the guy that was closer, if it was just pen and paper of what makes sense. But there are a lot of things that go into the sport, and being more famous than other people is one of them. Sean O’Malley has that leverage over everybody, and good on him. He worked really hard in order to gain that, so I’m not going to hate on him for it. But that’s definitely why,” Sandhagen told ‘MMA Junkie’ in a recent interview.

And you know what, it is hard to disagree with the bantamweight star’s reasoning. But, the UFC is a business first and foremost. And they cannot be faulted for making fights that make the most financial sense. As long as it doesn’t compromise the integrity of the sport, which, to be fair, the O’Malley fight does not. What do you think about Merab Dvalishvili vs. Sean O’Malley UFC 316 rumors?