Everyone wanted a piece of Sean O'Malley when he was UFC champion.
'Suga' held the Bantamweight title for just over a year and defended the belt in a master class against Chito Vera before he lost it months later to Merab Dvalishvili on UFC 306.
It was not your normal title fight in Las Vegas, no, O'Malley vs. Dvalishvili went out of the ball of billion dollars with an incredible lighting view on the background of the Octagon-a unique experience.
Sean O'Malley lost to Dvalishhvili through a unanimous decision in a non -characteristic version. His coach Tim Welch said that he believes that the lighting of the bol made it problematic for O'Malley to find his shots on the feet.
Headlining on the Bol comes with a certain edition and looking back on O'Malley's title loss, a pay-per-view star thinks the moment (and everything around it) rattled the champion before the fight even started.
Photo by Cooper Neill/Zuffa LLC
Chael Sonnen says that Sean O'Malley 'was drawn in three different directions' on UFC 306
Former UFC title Challenger Chael Sonnen says that O'Malley had much more to deal with than Merab Dvalishvili on Fight Night.
'You have [Umar] Nurmagomedov in the first row, actually, with a notepad and a pen that takes every step that makes O'Malley, “Sonen said on a good guy / bad guy.
“O'Malley has no choice. He must deal with this maniac called Merab. He might as well fight Nurmagomedov.
'He has targeted his eyes [Deiveson] Figueiredo. I mean, he has taken three different directions.
“You want to talk about the lights that are too bright, when we talk about figurative, says Stephen A. Smith:” Where the lights became too clear … “They were too damn clear.
“That was not a fair situation in which they use Sean,” Sonen added.
Chael Sonnen says that Sean O'Malley has not received a 'fair shake' with Merab Dvalishvili
After O'Malley's only title defense about Chito Vera on UFC 299, Sonen claimed that 'Suga' did not have much choice when it came to fighting Dvalishvili in September.
In the Bantam weight division you could not find a competition that earned a title shot than Dvalishvili, because the Georgian had to win ten fights in a row to get a crack at O'Malley. But still, says Sonnen:
“Sean has never asked for the Merab fight.
'Sean beat Chito Vera [the UFC] Gave him the Merab fight, “Sonen explained.
“He never even had the chance to take it to the open market and to find out who he wanted.
“I never thought they gave Sean an honest shake,” Sonen said.
Sean O'Malley also stated after the fight that he fought against Dvalishvili as he was injured with a torn Labrum.
The former champion gets the chance to exchange itself against Dvalishvili in the main event of UFC 316 on 7 June in the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey.