In their rematch, Cory Sandhagen has shared his opinions on what Sean O’Malley can do to overcome Merab Dvalishvili.
Sean O’Malley will face Merab Dvalishvili for the UFC bantamweight title in the main event of UFC 316. In their first meeting last year, Dvalishvili was able to win the belt from “Suga,” and many people are unsure if things would turn out differently if they were to run it again. We’ll get the opportunity to find out next month.
Needless to say, O’Malley must take a different tack in the rematch. He needs to improve his defensive wrestling skills, become smarter, and execute his moves more cleanly. Dvalishvili will attempt to revisit the factors that led him to the dance and that enabled him to defeat Umar Nurmagomedov and successfully defend the title.
In a recent interview, Cory Sandhagen offered O’Malley some guidance on how to tackle this task most effectively.
Advice from Sandhagen to O’Malley
“I don’t think the answer to beating Merab is a ton of footwork and keeping space,” Sandhagen said. “I think O’Malley’s a lot longer, like Umar tried it, and O’Malley tried it the first time: Move your feet, keep a bunch of distance, and do it that way. That’s a way to do it, but when a guy has a massive gas tank that’s just like a superhero, I think that you just set your space and when Merab gets close to you, you hit that fool.
“And that sounds really simple and maybe not the most technical way, but I do think that’s a way to combat the conditioning piece. I don’t even think that he has to bring it to Merab, he just has to just try to counter him, but not counter and reset a thousand times. He just has to stand there, defend the shots as best he can, and when Merab gets close to him, just hit him.”
Quotes via MMA Junkie
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