'Oh f**k': Sean O'Malley describes how Merab Dvalishvili submitted him, admits 'I don't feel sad at all' after loss

11/06/2025 15:00

Sean O'Malley didn't think he was in serious danger when Merab Dvalishvili snatched a front headlock during a grappling exchange in the third round but then just seconds later the fight was over.

It was a stunning sequence for the former bantamweight champion after he was forced to tap out for the first time in his career, which ended his rematch with Dvalishvili in the UFC 316 main event. Just days after the fight, O'Malley and his coach Tim Welch discussed the submission and the confidence Dvalishvili showed grabbing onto his neck after he previously just sought to maintain a more advantageous position when they first met this past September.

"It was weird. Because I didn't feel like it was going to be tight," O'Malley said about the submission on his YouTube channel. "I felt like he was kind of stalling in that position like he does and it just got tight fast.

"I was like oh f*ck. I didn't realize how much time was left, I wish I would have f*cking been in my guard more instead of trying to get up and make something happen. No excuses."

After battling Dvalishvili to a decision in their first encounter, O'Malley couldn't do anything but congratulate the Georgian on a job well done to finish the fight in the rematch.

Despite less than nine months passing between fights, O'Malley credited Dvalishvili for making some necessary adjustments and somehow getting even more powerful for the rematch.

"He felt strong last time but this time he felt just freakishly strong," O'Malley said. "He's the greatest bantamweight of all time."

While the result didn't go his way, O'Malley admits his perspective after this loss feels much different than his first encounter with Dvalishvili.

Part of that comes down to walking away healthy with O'Malley saying that his body actually feels great right now unlike the fight from this past September where he immediately had to undergo hip surgery.

This time around, O'Malley knows he still needs to make some necessary changes before he competes again but he's healthy, wealthy and life could be a whole lot worse.

"So for me to be able to go through something like that and the next Sunday rolls around, Monday rolls around, I don't feel sad at all," O'Malley said. "I still feel very happy. I feel a little disappointed in the outcome. I feel like I'm frustrated but there's no sadness inside of me.

"I'm holding my 14-day-old, Elena's sleeping on my chest, [my wife] Dani's right next to me, I'll close my eyes and I'll picture things — when he locked up the guillotine, I could have done something, could have done this, could have done that, but there's nothing I can do about it now. Kind of onto the next thought, I'm not sitting in that f*cking thought just unravel and go down a negative hole. I still feel very good."

With back-to-back losses to Dvalishvili on his record, O'Malley is obviously going to move onto a different opponent for his next fight but he's not even interested in discussing that just yet.

One of O'Malley's friends during the podcast suggested a fight against Umar Nurmagomedov, who actually dropped a decision to Dvalishvili back in January but remains available right now.

That might be intriguing but more than anything, O'Malley says he's just ready to decompress and he'll think about opponents and a timeline for him toe fight again at a later date.

"It's nice to not think about a fight right now," O'Malley said. "Because I do want to just chill for a few weeks and it's way better [to not have a fight right now]. Even if the UFC said I think we know what we're going to do, I don't even want to know right now. Let me chill for five."