Daniel Cormier thinks Sean O’Malley now faces a tough road back to the UFC title.
O’Malley (18-3 MMA, 10-3 UFC) lost to bantamweight champion Merab Dvalishvili (20-4 MMA, 13-2 UFC) for the second-straight time when he was submitted in Saturday’s UFC 316 headliner at Prudential Center in Newark, N.J. O’Malley lost in more definitive fashion after dropping their first fight at UFC 306 by unanimous decision.
Cormier says O’Malley finds himself in a quandary, as he’ll have to face murderer’s row at bantamweight if he wants to re-insert himself in the title picture.
“He just lost to the champion twice,” Cormier said of O’Malley on ESPN’s SportsCenter. “Until there’s a changeover, it’ll be hard for Sean O’Malley to work his way back into a title opportunity, and he might find himself standing across from Umar Nurmagomedov.
“It doesn’t get easier for ‘The Suga Show.’ But Merab Dvalishvili really showed he is the cream of the crop at 135 pounds, and he did it better than before. He was more dominant than before, and he finished him. If Merab starts to finish guys, he is a real problem in the UFC.”
O’Malley knocked out Aljamain Sterling to claim the bantamweight title at UFC 292. He successfully defended his belt against Marlon Vera at UFC 299, before losing it to Dvalishvili at UFC 306.
