'The narrative is crazy'… Sean O'Malley shares video that he believes proves he won UFC 306 showdown with Merab Dvalishvili

Yesterday at 07:04 AM

Sean O’Malley has uploaded a video to his YouTube channel that he believes is proof he deserved to win at UFC 306.

The former bantamweight champion lost his belt last Saturday in Las Vegas as he was beaten in what was universally considered dominant fashion by Merab Dvalishvili. But he now claims that he did enough to win three of the five rounds, and should have retained his belt.

He is now even claiming that he will move on and ‘defend his title’ against the next top contender Umar Nurmagomedov. He believes that Dvalishvili is not willing to face the Russian in his first defence of the belt, and that he will keep the division moving.

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Sean O’Malley makes his case for winning at UFC 306

In a new video on his YouTube channel, Sean O’Malley rewatched his fight with Merab Dvalishvili from Sphere in Las Vegas with his friends and teammates. He claims that the plan was to give himself ‘some closure’, but it appears to have opened up wounds more than ever as he now claims he won the fight.

He starts by watching the first round, which none of the three judges scoring on the night gave in his direction. “People are saying they could have given me this first round,” he can be seen telling coach Tim Welch. “Unless the ground-and-pound is that bad, it could be.

“This first round, a minute and a half left? I won this s***. He still hasn’t really hit me with anything, right? This wasn’t tight at all, I literally won that round, that’s not even that controversial.” He didn’t show much of the second, but admitted he had lost it as he scored the fight 1-1 going into the third.

“This is already way different than what I was expecting just from what I’ve been hearing,” he claimed as they took in the third, which he was scored as winning by two judges. “This round is closer than the first. What is this? The narrative is crazy, I might ask the UFC ‘please put this on YouTube’.”

“I know the haters are going to just comment what they want,” O’Malley claimed as they watched the fourth, which was scored against him on all four cards. “But if someone watches this with judging in mind this is a f***ing close fight. 2-2 going into the fifth.”

Consensus around the sport was that the fifth round was the clearest in O’Malley’s favor, and he believes that as well. O’Malley claims that his video shows that he won rounds one, three and five, meaning he should keep the bantamweight title.

Merab Dvalishvili claims Sean O’Malley is his ‘son’ after UFC 306 win

The YouTube video follows a series of social media posts from O’Malley claiming that he has a rightful claim to the bantamweight belt. But Dvalishvili strongly disagrees, telling fans on social media that the American is ‘his son’ after the fight.

He shared a video of his own to X, formerly Twitter, reacting to O’Malley’s antics. He can be seen pulling up in his car with the belt around his arm, asking “what the f*** is going on?” He then finds a toy car with the former champion inside, and asks him “What’s up with you bro? Why you keep smoking my friend?”

“I thought you were just sleeping, it’s sleep time for you,” he joked in the video which has been viewed over 600,000 times in just a day. “Listen, don’t worry about this Umar Nurmagomedov, I will take care of Umar.

“You’re not a champion any more and I’m going to take belt from you again so that you drive safe, son. No more smoking, okay?”

Merab Dvalishvili explains why he kissed Sean O’Malley during UFC 306 fight

One bizarre moment during the UFC 306 main event came at the end of the second round as Dvalishvili had O’Malley in an awkward position against the cage. With just seconds to go in the round, he opted not to go for a choke, instead opting to kiss his rival on the back.

And he has explained his thinking behind the moment, writing on social media: “Wanted to explain also what happened during fight – when I got O’Malley in the choke… I heard 10 seconds and knew I didn’t have enough time for a submission.

“I decided to show him who the daddy was of this fight and gave his back a few kisses LOL. When the ref touched me I thought it was break time so I started walking to my corner… But there was still 3 seconds – he was just telling me to stop kissing him LOL!”

Despite the fact that the moment was a light-hearted one, there were a few issues raised with referee Herb Dean’s handling of the fight. He stopped the action just seconds in to tell O’Malley’s corner to stop giving instructions to Dvalishvili, and towards the end tried to force the challenger to engage.

“Still respect for Herb Dean,” Dvalishvili added. “I tweet before about how great a job he did reffing my fight when he stopped the callouts from O’Malley’s team and when he told me to cut the kissing. I finally watched the fight though and he definitely effected my fifth round.

“I had O’Malleys back in a good position and giving damage with knees. But Herb kept telling me to work. So I switched my position and he told again – work. I let go again and lost my dominant position. I was waiting for Sean to work so I could punch his face or grab the submission.”

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