Cory Sandhagen believes Sean O’Malley has the upper hand going into a potential UFC bantamweight title rematch with Merab Dvalishvili.
O’Malley lost the 135lb strap to Dvalishvili at UFC 306 last September and hasn’t fought in the Octagon since.
‘Suga’ believed he won three of the five rounds against ‘The Machine’, yet the judges disagreed, as they scored the contest 49-46, 48-47 and 48-47 in Dvalishvili’s favour.
O’Malley revealed that he suffered from a torn labrum throughout his UFC 306 training camp and has since required surgery on the hip muscle.
Sandhagen is the No.4 ranked UFC bantamweight and had strong words on a potential rematch between his fellow 135lb fighters ahead of his own return to action.
“I love rooting for an underdog,” Sandhagen told MMA Junkie.
“So maybe O’Malley will do well, but it’s hard for me to imagine the fight going too different from the first one.
“But also at the same time, the guy who has the puncher’s chance, obviously their ability to knock the person out goes up if you give them another 25 minutes to try to figure out how to do so.
“It’s definitely an advantage for O’Malley going into this fight.”
UFC CEO Dana White and Dvalishvili have both hinted that an O’Malley rematch is next in line.
Dvalishvili said at a Power Slap event that the bout is ‘happening’ but wasn’t able to provide a timeline for the title encounter.
Sandhagen takes on MMA veteran and ex-flyweight champion Deiveson Figueiredo this May, which is his first fight since losing to Umar Nurmagomedov in August.
Nurmagomedov defeated Sandhagen via unanimous decision after five rounds in August before suffering the first defeat of his career to Dvalishvili.
Sandhagen believes Nurmagomedov should have been next in line for a rematch with Dvalishvili but understands why the UFC have thrust O’Malley back into title contention.
“I’m not surprised – we all know why,” Sandhagen added. “O’Malley has a really big following.
“That’s the reason. Umar and Merab’s fight was much closer than O’Malley and Merab’s fight.
“If you were going to give a rematch to anyone you would probably give it to the guy that was closer, if it was just pen and paper of what makes sense.
“But there’s a lot of things that go into the sport, and being more famous than other people is one of them.
“Sean O’Malley has that leverage over everybody, and good on him. He worked really hard in order to gain that, so I’m not going to hate on him for it. But that’s definitely why.”
O’Malley was dominated by Dvalishvili in several area at Las Vegas’ Sphere in the main event of UFC 306.
He was controlled by his Georgian counterpart on the canvas for over ten minutes and landed 165 fewer strikes than the current bantamweight champion across the five rounds.
Sandhagen concluded by asserting that a fight with himself and Dvalishvili would play out far differently due to his ‘way better’ wrestling.
“Merab’s a fine champion,” he said. “I don’t really think too much about what Merab is as a champion from a fan’s standpoint, but I think Merab is super skilled.
“He’s on like a 13-fight win streak. You don’t just oops your way into winning 13 fights.
“You have to be very good in order to do that. Merab’s obviously one of the best guys in the sport right now, and I think if me and him fight, it would be a really interesting fight.
“I can win that fight for sure. I can control the space similar to the way O’Malley [did], but I’m just a way better wrestler than O’Malley is, offensively and defensively.
“I hit harder now. I’m very athletic. I didn’t get to show a lot of the new things I’ve been working on in the last one because Umar was wrestling the s*** out of me so much, but I think I do awesome against Merab.
“We’ve kind of seen him fight everyone else. … I go out and I beat [Figueiredo] really well, I don’t really see a situation where you can’t at least understand the argument that I should be fighting for the belt next.”
Should Sandhagen defeat Figueiredo in Iowa he could be in contention for a title shot of his own, having fought for UFC gold just once in his career against Petr Yan in 2021.
