Sean O’Malley has shared the octagon with both Petr Yan and Merab Dvalishvili, which meant he was certainly interested in how their second meeting would play out in the UFC 323 main event.
Like most, O’Malley was blown away by Yan, who is now a two-time bantamweight champion after defeating Dvalishvili in a stunning upset in the UFC’s final title fight of 2025. Yan earned a unanimous decision to extend his current win streak to four fights, and became just the third fighter in UFC history to capture the 135-pound world title on multiple occasions.
Check out O’Malley’s reactions to every big moment of the fight — along with a little bit of the Payton Talbott vs. Henry Cejudo fight — below, courtesy of O’Malley’s Twitter.
“What a performance from Petr, everyone counted him out,” O’Malley said. “God, Merab getting slammed on his head might be my new screensaver. …
“Holy shit, Petr Yan got the job done.”
O’Malley defeated Yan via split decision at UFC 280 in October 2022, which led to “Suga” fighting for the bantamweight title 10 months later, and winning it with a knockout over Aljamain Sterling at UFC 292 in August 2023. After defending the title successfully against Marlon Vera at UFC 299 in March 2024, O’Malley dropped the belt to Dvalishvili at UFC 306 six months later via unanimous decision. O’Malley would get an immediate rematch against Dvalishvili at UFC 316 in June, where he was submitted.
Now, O’Malley finds himself in an interesting spot as he prepares to face Song Yadong in a pivotal divisional matchup at UFC 324 in January.
Read the full article here
