Sean O'Malley vs Merab Dvalishvili in 2024?

UFC bantamweight champion Sean O’Malley successfully defended his title at UFC 299, defeating his old rival Marlon “Chito” Vera. In the five-round bout, Sean O’Malley dominated Marlon Vera on the feet and hardly ever gave him the chance to revive, winning the fight by a unanimous decision. After the fight, “Suga” called out UFC featherweight champion Ilia Topuria for a bout in Spain, neglecting the next potential bantamweight challenger, Merab Dvalishvili, who is on a 10-fight win streak, one more than his friend and former bantamweight champion Aljamain Sterling’s win streak. Merab has been eyeing the title for a long time and is pissed off at Suga for not mentioning his name as the next challenger.

Earlier, Sean O’Malley teased Merab by tweeting that he will fight Merab next year in 2025. The call-out didn’t go well with Merab, who immediately pointed out Sean O’Malley’s mistake in writing his name wrong and took a jibe on Suga by saying that the champion needs a year more to fight, questioning his abilities to fight “The Machine.”.

I WANT MARAB. 2025 will be legendary ✌🏽
— Sean O'Malley (@SugaSeanMMA) March 15, 2024

I have been waiting for this callout for 7 years.. but who is Marab ??? Dude .. review my name lessons I gave Henry… MERAB! And guess you need another year to prepare for the machine 🦾 pic.twitter.com/JmxzhQV5iN
— Merab “The Machine” Dvalishvili (@MerabDvalishvil) March 15, 2024

In a viral video that was posted by “Suga” on Snapchat, he revealed that the 2025 timeline was just to rile up his opponent. He could fight him in 2024.

Alright boys, I just shot off a little tweet [saying], ‘Merab 2025.’ That’s not real, I want to beat his a** this year probably. But I just thought I’d fluster him, he’s short so he gets mad easily.”
Sean O’Malley said

It’s up to the UFC now whether the fight between the two is going to happen this year or next, but it will be worth watching to see two completely opposite fighters in terms of fighting style in the cage.