‘He’ll Kill You! ’O’Malley And Merab Get Into Heated Faceoff

UFC

Sean O’Malley and Merab Dvalishvili aren’t the biggest fans of each other.

Noche UFC will be headlined by a Bantamweight title fight when the champion, O’Malley, looks to thwart off “The Machine” in his second career title defense. The pair have been on a crash course since O’Malley’s rivalry with Dvalishvili’s best friend and teammate, Aljamain Sterling, began last year.

The promotion had the fighters square off last week when the fight was made official and announced for the Las Vegas Sphere event. O’Malley and Dvalishvili started by picking up where they left on online when bantering between themselves and O’Malley’s head coach, Tim Welch. The exchange can be seen in the embedded player above.

“If you have a problem with him, you can take it up with him,” O’Malley said (h/t MMA Fighting). “He’ll fight you. If that’s what you want. After the fight, you should definitely try to smack his face. You should definitely try that. That would be funny. You should try that.”

Dvalishvili responded, clarifying, “I’m talking about a street fight,” when he bantered with Welch.

“You could street fight him. I’d love to see that,” O’Malley said. “You want to die? Is that what you’re saying? He’ll kill you.”

Welch, 34, last fought professionally in 2017 before turning his primary focus to coaching after a 14-6 career at Welterweight. The “Red Hawk” most recently grappled twice in losing efforts against Pedro Rocha and Javier Torres in 2020.

As for O’Malley and Dvalishvili, they’ll headline Noche UFC in the promotion’s anticipated only Sphere mixed martial arts (MMA) spectacle.