At first look, Saturday evening’s occasion between UFC bantamweight champion Sean O’Malley and Merab Dvalishvili appears a bit complicated. It’s a pay-per-view formally named “UFC 306: Riyadh Season Noche UFC,” mixing Saudi Arabia’s sponsorship with the celebration of Mexican Independence Day, although neither O’Malley nor Dvalishvili has any Mexican heritage. (As O’Malley has clarified, as a result of his spouse and daughter are Mexican, he greater than qualifies.)
To make issues much more thrilling, the occasion will likely be held at Sphere in Las Vegas. An immersive present is deliberate to happen all through the evening, with six brief movies honoring Mexican fighters, previous and current. In some methods, the conflict of optics is becoming for the primary occasion. It isn’t solely a distinction of kinds and physique sorts, but additionally a story of two very completely different profession trajectories.
Again in 2017, the UFC found Merab on the aptly named Dana White: Lookin’ for a Struggle, a UFC-produced collection by which Dana White visits regional struggle scenes to seek out expertise. Merab beat Raufeon Stots that evening in New Jersey, incomes himself a UFC contract. Nevertheless, on the time, it appeared like nobody paid a lot consideration. White and his fellow expertise scout, Matt Serra, had been truly there to look at Merab’s teammate, James Gonzalez, struggle. Merab ended up being a pleasing shock.
That very same yr, O’Malley made a breakthrough on one other of the UFC’s talent-finding autos, Dana White’s Contender Sequence, which, against this, got here with an incredible quantity of fanfare. With former WEC champion Urijah Faber and Snoop Dogg offering commentary, O’Malley—stretching 135 kilos right into a wiry, 5-foot-11 body—dropped quite a lot of jaws by knocking out Alfred Khashakyan with an unbelievable walk-off proper hand. As he climbed the fence and shouted, “Welcome to the Suga Present,” the UFC knew it had a star on its arms.
“I’m in search of thrilling, I’m in search of flashy,” Dana White stated after O’Malley’s efficiency. “I’m in search of someone who has that factor. Sean O’Malley is that factor.”
First impressions imply the whole lot as a result of, seven years later, O’Malley has emerged as one of many greatest stars within the UFC. Who else would they ask to headline such a novel, high-priced card surrounded by a 160,000-square-foot high-definition LED display? Evidently all over the place you look, O’Malley’s snow cone of curly locks could be noticed as he poses for photograph ops and rocks endorsements. Generally he’s sparking a blunt with Snoop Dogg. Generally he’s hanging out with 6ix9ine and the Nelk Boys. Extra not too long ago, he launched a deodorant line with Jake Paul, which they’re calling “W.” In case you noticed the Tom Brady roast again in Could, there was “Suga” Sean hanging out with Boston’s personal Dana White, fortunately catching the occasional jab from roastmaster Jeff Ross.
O’Malley has dealt with the highlight with knowledgeable ease, proving his haters unsuitable within the cage. Many doubted he would defeat Petr Yan in a contender’s bout, however he did (albeit controversially, as some believed he misplaced on the scorecards). Critics claimed he was “gifted” his title shot towards Merab’s pal and coaching accomplice, Aljamain Sterling, however he made essentially the most of his alternative. In a dramatic second-round knockout, with Boston chanting his identify, he gained the belt.
O’Malley possesses the aura of a unicorn and a spread that may wreck your evening. He’s the UFC’s fever dream, a psychedelic expertise that rivals something dripping down the partitions at Sphere.
That’s why the UFC is trusting the Suga Present to headline a card that’s costing round $20 million to placed on. If O’Malley rolls by way of Dvalishvili, the lid will blow off Sphere, organising a good larger struggle. Maybe O’Malley will get his want to struggle Conor McGregor, or perhaps it will likely be Umar Nurmagomedov ready within the wings, or Deiveson Figueiredo, or the winner of the struggle between Max Holloway and featherweight champion Ilia Topuria. Huge-name boxers are mentioning his identify, too.
But anybody who has been watching is aware of it’s a idiot’s recreation to miss the comparatively unsung Dvalishvili, a Georgian fighter who moved to New York at 21 years outdated to pursue a profession in MMA. Merab is the polar reverse of O’Malley, standing 5-foot-6 on his tippy-toes, however he has proved he can wrestle a person right into a real-time existential disaster. He is named “the Machine” for a motive—he’s tremendous fast, as he demonstrated in his bout with former champion José Aldo, and he turns right into a Tasmanian satan in scrambles. He units a tempo that defies all guidelines and conventions. Whereas most fighters fade down the stretch, Merab solely will get stronger. He’s a demon within the clinch and assaults the lead leg with relentless cardio.
He says he’ll put on down the spindly O’Malley and produce the struggle to him, and the proof means that Merab doesn’t know another means.
“I feel so, particularly as a result of I’ve 5 rounds,” he instructed The Ringer. “I feel it favors me as a result of I grow to be even higher by the fourth spherical or fifth spherical. I’ll break him. That’s what I consider, and that’s what I’m in search of.”
Moreover, there’s an X issue that must be talked about. The dude is slightly on the market.
Merab’s notoriety didn’t actually come from the UFC’s advertising arm or from his first handful of victories within the promotion. It got here when he posted a video on social media of him diving headfirst right into a frozen pond. On a jog by way of the snow in full winter gear, he pulled as much as the sheet of ice and easily couldn’t resist. He stripped right down to his shorts and, with out hesitation, dove proper in, popping up an prompt later holding his head. He didn’t understand there have been tree branches submerged slightly below the ice, which busted his dome broad open.
Foolish, proper? However by posting it realizing simply how foolish it was—presto. Foolish turns into endearing!
From that time on, followers took a shine to the man whose identify they couldn’t pronounce coaching with Ray Longo on Lengthy Island as a result of he had an obvious screw free. That put up grew to become a sort of meme, but it surely put Merab on the map. Since then, by way of a 10-fight win streak by which he’s overwhelmed three former champions in a row, Merab has been posting comical skits and flashes of his life, together with just some weeks in the past, when he proudly confirmed off a recent gash in his head that he suffered in coaching camp.
That put up, which brought on rapid alarm that he could also be pressured out of his struggle with O’Malley on such a giant card, despatched Dana White excessive.
“The entire world now is aware of about Merab’s reduce, [because] he posted it,” White stated. “Our guys are so dumb it’s subsequent degree, unbelievable.”
How did Merab reply? He posted a video of himself eradicating his personal stitches with a giant pair of unsanitary shears. At that time, Dana recommended that Merab needed to be trolling him.
“No, I put up the whole lot on my social media,” Merab says. “Like that point I by accident break my head, I used to be the one one who recorded it myself, and I knew if I posted that video folks would say I used to be silly. However on the identical time, I’m not hiding nothing. That is my way of life; that is how I stay. That’s why I’m a fighter. That’s why I’m completely different than regular folks.”
Saturday evening, the UFC might transition from being the Suga Present to turning into a part of the Machine. It will be a pointy flip from the place each fighters started seven years in the past, with one crashing onto the scene like a lightning bolt and the opposite sneaking in from the woodwork in New Jersey.
“I feel Dana will likely be rooting for Sean O’Malley since O’Malley gained the Contender Sequence; he completed his opponent,” Dvalishvili says. “He grew to become a star, and he grew to become a UFC-favorite fighter. I perceive he’s a star, and he’s particular, and, like Dana says, he’s a factor.
“Everyone knows Sean O’Malley was combating guys from outdoors of prime 15, and just one prime man. He fought Petr Yan, after which they robbed Petr Yan—the judges did. After which from there they saved him for the belt, and he used his probability. Now he’s a champion. He’s fighter, however he’s been favored slightly bit.”
If the UFC was defending O’Malley by reserving him right into a “winnable” revenge struggle towards Marlon “Chito” Vera for his first title protection at UFC 299, it’s doing simply the other this time round. Dvalishvili is a fighter no one needs to face, but he made himself plain as the subsequent man up. In between the primary and second rounds of his struggle with the betting favourite Petr Yan final March, Yan’s nook, sensing that their man was being overwhelmed, needed to remind Yan that Dvalishvili was merely a human being. That he was mortal.
Once they lock the cage door and Merab begins to siphon the gasoline tanks of world-class fighters, one thing occurs that renders the perfect recreation plans moot. Whether or not Merab can try this towards a superior striker like O’Malley is the place the drama lies for UFC 306. If O’Malley overcomes Merab, the UFC may have its greatest star not named Conor McGregor. However the various requires some use of the creativeness.
Not less than one particular person has thought of why the Merab Period could be good for enterprise—and that’s Merab himself. All these years in the past when Dana stated he was in search of that factor, which he’d present in Sean O’Malley? The person who jumped right into a frozen lake believes he has it, too.
“Dana White was the one who discovered me in Lookin’ for a Strugglein New Jersey after I was combating for the belt,” he says. “I feel that’s sort of good for the corporate, to have a brand new face.”
Chuck Mindenhall writes about fight sports activities with out bias, and generally about his Denver groups with excessive bias. He cohostsThe Ringer MMA Present on Spotify.
