Sean O’Malley plans to take an extended break after losing the bantamweight title to Merab Dvalishvili in the main event of UFC 306 this past Saturday.
“I probably won’t fight for probably nine months, 10 months, maybe a year,” O’Malley said on his YouTube channel. “It’s going to be a while. People are going to have to watch the UFC without The Suga Show for a little bit, but then maybe they’ll realize, ‘F*ck, we had it, it was fun.’ ... No one’s next. I’ve got to get healthy and that’s it. I’m going to actually heal up from injuries, and take my time to come back.”
Dvalishvili captured the title via unanimous decision — including two judges giving two rounds to O’Malley — with a combination of doing what he does best with his wrestling and pace, while also showing great defensive savvy and patience.
One of the big narratives, including from UFC CEO Dana White, was that O’Malley was off, or looked flat. “Sugar” says those are false narratives, and that the better guy won on fight night.
“Great fight week, best weight cut, felt good, no excuses,” O’Malley said. “My mom, too, she says, ‘You just weren’t the same, what was wrong?’ Nothing. I jut 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. Nothing. Had a good fight camp, good weight cut.”
“I feel like I got outstrengthed,” O’Malley added. “I knew what to do in certain positions, I just felt like he was just stronger. I felt outstrength, I didn’t feel too outskilled, I felt speed, I felt cardio was good.
“Damn, if I had just won one more [round], and those two judges said it? One more round? That’s crazy.”
O’Malley had the biggest moment of the fight in the fifth and final round when he hurt Dvalishvili to the body a couple of times. The popular bantamweight just couldn’t get enough momentum to parlay it into an incredible comeback finish.
That is one of the big regrets in O’Malley’s eyes, but that’s not the only one.
“That fifth round? That stings,” O’Malley said. “That definitely f*cking stings. We partied like we won, I’ll tell you that much.
“F*ck. Literally, I’ve probably said f*ck 4,000 times. F*ck, that was such a massive opportunity, the eyeballs that were there — I was looking at Snapchat... like f*ck, all of those things could’ve been ‘The Suga Show,’... but it’s funny because none of those are [about] Merab. A couple of them were about me losing, but nothing about Merab winning. No one gives a f*ck. Not a hater, just saying.”
