Useless title defense

Legacy wise. No but it was a nice finish over a top 5 fighter, he also slipped it in at a good time to get that extra title defense. He can probably fight corey later this year in msg.


I'm not sure it doesn't nothing from a career perspective. If he fights cory this year and wins we could be looking at a fighter of the year run with wins over O'Malley, Umar and sandhagen. Would be much less impressive without O'Malley on there.
This O’Malley title shot will go down as one of the most undeserving title shots in UFC history. And I predict O’Malley’s career will age like milk as the years go on. This will have done nothing for Merab’s career or legacy imho. He would’ve been better off defending against Sandhagen, whose career I think will age well.
 
This O’Malley title shot will go down as one of the most undeserving title shots in UFC history. And I predict O’Malley’s career will age like milk as the years go on. This will have done nothing for Merab’s career or legacy imho.
I definitely think it could be the different between fighter of the year or not winning it
 
I definitely think it could be the different between fighter of the year or not winning it
Nah, it’s filler. I wouldn’t give Merab Fighter of the year just for activity, which is what that would be.
 
This is where it sucks for the really small fighters. Dude cleaned out the division but there's nothing for him above bantamweight.

In boxing this is where you would jump to 140...
 
I'll agree it was a super undeserved rematch, but it did give Merab a chance to look godmode against a former champ

Sandhagen just got his win against Figueiredo so now it's time for his title shot
 
What did the ufc see in the first matchup that led them to believe O’Malley had anything for this guy. One of the dumbest semi instant rematches ever
Worse than an instant rematch, the champion had to win a fight for the privilege to rematch O'Malley.
Sandhagen is a waste of time too. Merab walks through him. Nothing wrong with Suga getting another crack at it.
There is something wrong with it. Sean O'Malley did nothing to earn that rematch. He didn't fight after his title loss, meaning that a potential contender didn't get a shot at becoming a contender. It also means that Sean didn't get any cage time with his 2nd hip. And now he's forever tarnished as the guy who got 2 cracks at the title, and got beat worse in the rematch than he did in the first fight.
It was criticized for being a pointless rematch and it proved those criticisms were valid. Could have all been different if Sean won just a single fight in between, would have made more sense and been more intriguing. But UFC has poor vision and can’t build up fights.
Not only is it bad for O'Malley's career, but it denies a potential contender a shot at a former champ, and a potentially big payday. If O'Malley is the draw that we are supposed to pretend he is, it also means that the UFC could have had a title fight on this PPV and have a O'Malley PPV that doesn't even need to be a title fight. There was probably more money to be made by not having this rematch, but now the UFC is left with a former champ with a much harder comeback. Who is he going to fight next? Umar? Good luck, he has similar strengths as Merab. Cody Garbrandt's career comes to mind.
 
Yeah but what an animal. Sandhagen is going to get crunched

He will at least be way more competitive than this was. Corey is light years better a grappler than Sean and the only guy who seemingly won't be broken by Merab's pace as Corey is a cardio machine too.
 
Not useless. It proved how many levels ahead Merab is at this point in time.
 
It was but there wasn't any clearcut contender. Yan probably the best shout but what Merab did against him no one wants to see that again. Cory just beat Fig. Fig got derailed. Song lost. What was the other option? Umar rematch?
No one wanted to see this again

At least Merab and Yan have had other fights in between

This was one of the most egregious title shots in UfC history
 
Last edited:
This O’Malley title shot will go down as one of the most undeserving title shots in UFC history. And I predict O’Malley’s career will age like milk as the years go on. This will have done nothing for Merab’s career or legacy imho. He would’ve been better off defending against Sandhagen, whose career I think will age well.
O’Malley has one legit high level win in his entire career to date. Aljo. No other high level , legit wins for him.

Very good chance you are correct about how his career will look at its end.
 
It seems like the only time in the last decade a title changed hands and there was no instant rematch was Conor-Aldo. I can't help but wonder why...
Instant rematches should be for long reigning champs and/or where there was some controversy in the decision or it was razor close.

Everything else is a farce
 
Back
Top