UFC 316: The Rematch That Nobody Asked For? Dvalishvili VS O'Malley II

Bantamweight has become extremely exciting over the past couple of years, with amazing fighters like Umar Nurmagomedov, Cory Sandhagen, Deiveson Figueiredo, and more.

They also have an exuberant wrestler as a champion, who goes by “The Machine”, holding that nickname for a reason. Merab Dvalishvili does not get tired and will not stop until he empties your gas tank, leaving you gasping for breath as he shoots takedown after takedown, dragging you into a pit of exhaustion.

The Bantamweight division is also home to the former champ, “Suga” Sean O’Malley. With elite striking and pinpoint precision, he knocks out contenders with ease. He is one of the biggest stars in the sport for a reason, with his flashy appearance and entertaining style, but does he deserve this immediate rematch for the Bantamweight belt after just losing it in his last fight?

Dana White had some big announcments in his last Instagram Live regarding the UFC 316 card in New Jersey. On April 1st, he announced that the rematch between Merab and O’Malley will be taking place on UFC 316, along with the Co-main event being Julianna Peña VS Kayla Harrison.

The two had a great fight in the Sphere for UFC 306, where the challenger was a hungry Merab against the dangerous champ O’Malley. During the majority of the fight, Merab was on top of O’Malley, and there wasn’t much stand up action. If you are a wrestling fan, it is a great fight to watch, as Merab’s cardio is out of this world and he demonstrates his perseverance over Sean’s elite striking.

Now while this is a great rematch fight, fans are wondering what exactly warranted a title shot for O’Malley. His last fight was against Merab, and now he has gotten an immediate rematch. Fans argue that it is not warrented for O’Malley to get another title shot, sugesting O’Malley should have to work his way back up to a title shot, like most other former champs do if their last fight was not close enough.

A fight being talked about that could have been made was Merab VS Petr Yan II. Yan, coming off an impressive win over Deiveson Figueiredo, has done a lot in the sport and is also a former champion himself, losing it due to an illegal knee against Aljamain Sterling. Fans argue Yan has the skills to become the champion again and that he deserves another shot at the title.

But a big factor to this equation is star power. Merab himself isn’t exactly the biggest star in the UFC, neither is Petr Yan (to an even lesser extent). The UFC will often times sacrifice certain fights that can be made, to promote and sell using a bigger star that will attract more eyeballs. This is the case with the Merab and O’Malley match up.

Now while this fight is still going to be entertaining it is critical to understand the motivation for putting it together, as this has happened before, taking the Merab VS Umar Nurmagomedov fight for example.

When the fight between Merab and Umar was announced, some fans complained that he hadn’t done enough to warrant a title shot, as he only had one win in the top 15 (Against Cory Sanhagen). But he had enough star power to get booked for a title fight as he is a brother of the undefeated champion Khabib Nurmagomedov, being very popular in Russia and around the world.

At the end of the day we have to remember that we are blessed to have a promotion that puts together big fights and does give the fans what they want (most times). Fans will continue to flock towards the UFC regardless, and they will be around for a long time to come.