There’s a new rivalry cooking in the UFC’s bantamweight division- between Sean O’Malley and Merab Dvalishvili, over a jacket.
Sean O’Malley says Dvalishvili holding his jacket was the most exciting moment of his career
It all started on the eve of UFC 288 when Aljamain Sterling defeated the returning Henry Cejudo in the main event to retain his 135-pound gold. After the win, O’Malley stepped into the ring to face off with Sterling, setting up a future title fight.
During the face off, O’Malley handed his jacket to Dvalishvhili to hold, which the latter put on and kept with himself and later, stated that O’Malley would only get the jacket back once he is defeated by “Funkmaster”.
“How about this? I’m going to wear this (jacket) until Aljo beat O’Malley. So, I’m keeping this jacket until Aljo beats O’Malley,” Dvalishvili revealed to Nina-Marie Daniele.
“Sugar”, in turn, slammed Dvalishvhili on Twitter, stating that him giving the Gerogian his jacket was the most exciting moment of Dvalishvhili’s career.
“The most exciting moment in Merabs career was when I gave him my jacket to hold,” tweeted O’Malley.
The most exciting moment in Merabs career was when I gave him my jacket to hold.
— Sean O'Malley (@SugaSeanMMA) May 26, 2023
However, this is not the first time that O’Malley has taken a shot at Dvalishvhili over the jacket. Following the incident at UFC 288, O’Malley called Dvalishvhili the “Coat Guy”.
“I thought that dude was my coat guy,” said O’Malley on The MMA Hour. “I had a coat guy on the night because I knew I was going to take my jacket off, but they didn’t let him in there, so I thought Merab was the coat dude. I had it to Merab, so I can’t even be mad at Merab. I don’t think he’s quite all there, so I don’t want to be a bully, but yeah, he’s a funny character… Merab’s going to stick around for a long time, I do believe that, so that fight’s going to happen regardless.” [H/T MMA Fighting]
Although O’Malley’s next outing in the Octagon will be the title fight against Sterling at UFC 292, a future grudge contest with Dvalishvhili might be up in the cards.
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