Sean O'Malley: 'I am 100 percent going to open up that cut' near Merab Dvalishvili's eye at UFC 306

06/09/2024 15:00

Sean O'Malley certainly isn't complaining about having an extra target to attack at UFC 306.

O'Malley defends his bantamweight title against Merab Dvalishvili on Sept. 14 in the main event of the promotion's debut event at Sphere in Las Vegas. A few weeks ago, Dvalishvili posted a photo of a cut suffered near his left eye to social media, which led to UFC CEO Dana Whitehaving some not-so-kind things to say about the challenger.

One of the factors for White's irate reaction was letting O'Malley know the cut exists — which is something the champ now plans to exploit.

"I am 100 percent going to open up that cut, whether it's healed or not," O'Malley told Kevin Iole.

O'Malley has been supremely confident that he will defeat Dvalishvili at UFC's September pay-per-view event, reiterating repeatedly that he loves the stylistic matchup.

With how much of a striking advantage O'Malley believes he has, the cut will just be one of the facial targets he'll be aiming for.

"I don't know how much it can heal," O'Malley said. "I've never had any bad cuts so I'm not sure, really. But I'm going to be [aiming for the cut]

"That's the left side of his face — this right hand doesn't miss. I'll probably accidentally hit his nose before I hit that cut, the nose just kind of takes up 85 percent of his face. So I'm going to try and get around his nose to get to that cut."

Dvalishvili subsequently posted video of himself removing the stitches from the cut shortly after the original reveal, which, of course, White sarcastically reacted to as well.

O'Malley understands where his boss is coming from, and agrees with White when it comes to Dvalishvili's intelligence.

"Dana referring to him as ... I don't remember what he said, one of the stupidest people, or beyond stupid, or whatever he said was pretty accurate," O'Malley said. "I mean, the dude is just not that smart of a guy."