Merab Dvalishvili slams Sean O'Malley after refusing to fight Alexander Volkanovski

20/09/2023 18:06

Merab Dvalishvili wants to fight Sean O'Malley but O'Malley wants to fight Marlon Vera instead. And now O'Malley has admitted he'd like to fight for the 145-pound title, but only if Alexander Volkanovski is no longer champion. 

"I would love to [move up] when Alexander Volkanovski is not the champ," O'Malley told ThatWasEpic. "That motherf***** is pound-for-pound best in the world right now.

He then backtracked and said he would fight him, under the right circumstances. 

"I wouldn't say that [I wouldn't fight him]. I mean, I'm confident I can knock anyone out. I feel like I can definitely knock Alexander Volkanovski out. It'd be fricking very, very difficult. But I mean, maybe in a year or two if he's still there, I would do it but I think he's gonna move up to 155. So, it depends who's champ."

Word of that got back to Dvalishvili, who should be next in line to fight the champion according to rankings.

That's my problem with you champ. You avoid the top contenders .. fights that are real 👎

— Merab "The Machine" Dvalishvili (@MerabDvalishvil) September 19, 2023

"That's my problem with you champ. You avoid the top contenders .. fights that are real," Dvalishvili tweeted along with the thumbs-down emoji. 

O'Malley beat Aljamain Sterling (Dvalishvili's best friend) to win the title. Dvalishvili had been sidelined due to not wanting to fight his friend and teammate but is now ready to step into the fight that many fans and critics believe is his.

Unfortunately, UFC president Dana White has been reluctant to give Dvalishvili the fight due to him turning it down for friendship in the past. 

"Everybody in this room and everybody that watches this video knows how I feel about this s***," White said during a post-fight press conference just weeks after O'Malley won the title. "Yeah, I hate it and if that's — why did you even get into this sport if that's your mentality in the way that you think? 'I don't even want the title, I don't want the championship. We're friends, we're this, we're that."

He continued, "this is not — you could be friends with everybody in this business. There's a lot of nice people in this business. A lot of good people. This is not about friendship. It's about finding out who the best in the world is. And if you don't want to find out who the best in the world is this is not the place for you. You should be somewhere else. There's plenty of places to fight where they don't give a s*** what you do. Doesn't work here."

It's clear that O'Malley isn't interested in fighting Dvalishvili, aiming for a rematch with Vera instead. 

So far, no fight has been announced for O'Malley.