Merab Getting ‘Slept Bad’ At UFC 306

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UFC 306, scheduled for Sept. 13 inside The Sphere in Las Vegas, Nevada, is fast-approaching.

The Riyadh Season Noche UFC event — quite a mouthful — is headlined by a Bantamweight title clash between champion Sean O’Malley and veteran contender Merab Dvalishvili. In addition to being a stellar clash of styles and elite 135-pounders, the fight has plenty of history. O’Malley knocked out Dvalishvili’s team mate and best buddy, Aljamain Sterling, to win the Bantamweight crown (watch here), while Dvalishvili has been calling for a clash with “Suga” for literal years now.

The feud has only grown harsher over the years. Dvalishvili is ready to swing on O’Malley’s head coach, Tim Welch, in addition to the champion, while O’Malley has been adding fuel to the fire by getting nationalistic with the trash talk. Perhaps all that bad blood has O’Malley feeling particularly violent, because his prediction for the bout is getting downright nasty.

“Left hand to the chopper,” O’Malley responded when asked how the fight would go. “Brutally. I know I’m going to hurt him at one point, but then it could turn into a brutal KO. Just an absolute, not a good weight cut, not a good camp, and he just gets slept bad. Like that [Li Jingliang] where it’s just five or six punches just add up and the last one puts him into the canvas snoring, nose crooked, cat screaming MEOW!”

Nobody is surprised that O’Malley expects to win on the feet, but it remains to be seen if he can handle the wrestling of Dvalishvili. “The Machine” has won a ridiculous 10 fights in a row, taking down just about everyone in the process, including Olympic gold medalist Henry Cejudo.

There’s also the recent element of a cut above the eye Dvalishvili suffered in training. The Georgian talent made the “next-level stupid” decision of posting himself getting stitches, revealing the target to O’Malley. If his eye is busted open early, that could make for a very difficult night of trying to close the distance against the rangy kickboxer.

We’ll find out in just a few weeks whether O’Malley’s prediction is accurate.