Sean O’Malley says Merab Dvalishvili’s ‘confidence in his hands’ could lead to stunning upset loss at UFC 323

Merab Dvalishvili’s two-time rival, Sean O’Malley, believes we could see a massive upset in the UFC 323 main event this weekend.

UFC bantamweight champion Merab Dvalishvili will fight in his fourth title defense of 2025 against Petr Yan this Saturday at UFC 323. It’s a rematch of Dvalishvili’s record-setting performance against Yan in 2023, featuring a record number of takedown attempts and successful takedowns.

Since their first fight, Yan has worked his way back to the bantamweight title with recent wins over Marcus McGhee and Song Yadong. His victory over Deiveson Figueiredo earlier this year put him back into the mix at 135 lbs.

Former UFC bantamweight champion Sean O’Malley is familiar with Dvalishvili and Yan, with two fights against the current champion and one fight against the former titleholder Yan. Despite Dvalishvili’s vastly improved striking during his ongoing win streak, O’Malley believes his boxing could get him into trouble at UFC 323.

Sean O’Malley predicts Merab Dvalishvili vs. Petr Yan 2

During a recent interview on The Ariel Helwani Show, O’Malley shared his prediction for the UFC 323 main event.

“The only way I see Yan beating Merab, is Merab is getting confident in his hands, damn near knocked out Cory Sandhagen and he’s punching more,” O’Malley said.

“He did it with Umar too when he was throwing some more combos, did it with Cory. Petr’s someone you have to be careful with, keeping your chin up, because he’ll capitalize. Such good counters, he’s fast, he’ll sit in the pocket and trade.

“But Merab’s fight IQ is smarter than his regular IQ, so I think he’s not necessarily going to go out and try to trade with him, but you never know.”

O’Malley will return to the Octagon next month at UFC 324 against Song Yadong. If Dvalishvili is victorious at UFC 324, there’s a decent chance he could pursue a rematch against Umar Nurmagomedov for his next title defense.