Merab is All Time, but Sean O'Malley Should Have Never Chased that Fight in 2025

[Siver!]

Fight Umar next lol

Probably Petr Yan, then Umar again.

Umar should fight in the mean time, it's ridiculous that Merab is fighting more regularly than the contenders.

 

[BroScienceTalkatWork]

Lol after they told him good job in round 1 i lmaod

Yeah he was getting pieced up. Landed like 2 kicks to start the fight and that was it

 

[BroScienceTalkatWork]

Merab would beat O'Malley even in 5 years.

He should move up a weight class. Will never be champ at 135 again with Merab ruling this division.

What good would 145 do? Sean already bulked up. He's thin

Don't compare him to Max.. Who's made of metal.. Ate the most strikes in UFC history.. You can put a whole lotta muscle and move up weight classes like that. Same thing with Charles..

 

[Luckyme]

The UFC gifted O'Malley that title shot because they are desperate for an American champion but it blew up in their face.

I think O'Malley's push finally comes to an end here. He's either going to move up to FW or fight lesser competition until Merab retires so he can get the belt again.

 

[animepro]

rushing into the rematch made no sense. merab is getting older. take some time to round out your game and take some exciting match ups while merab slows down. now he just hurt his star power and has no path to a title shot

 

[AstralPanda]

Sean had a labral tear that got surgically repaired after their first fight. Frankly he did better at counter wrestling and pretty clearly improved. If this Sean fights the Merab he met the first time, its competitive. This is setting aside the reality that turning down UFC title shots causes trouble with the brass, and nobody is more petty than Dana.

The reality is Merab is still getting better. His striking improved and we never see him pull off submissions. Its rare fighters improve meaningfully this late in their career, but this is a special dude.

Sean is a solidly top 5 bantamweight and he's generally in thrilling fights. He's going to be around the top of the division for a long time and wouldn't surprise me if he's champion again down the road.

Merab will retire as an all-time great for the division. He's just something else.

Yeah, it wasn’t as bad as people make it out to be. His wrestling was night and day from the first fight. First 2 rounds were competitive.

If I had to guess, he’s probably moving up after this.

Don’t think you can cut as much weight as he does and be able to fight at that kind of pace.

Plus, 145 is pretty dead and he has a lot of good style matchups there.

 

[TITS]

Sean is a solidly top 5 bantamweight and he's generally in thrilling fights. He's going to be around the top of the division for a long time and wouldn't surprise me if he's champion again down the road.

 

[AmonTobin]

100%. Rushing to a rematch after a score card sweep loss is never a good idea. He should have worked his way up and taken much more favourable fights first.