Sean O’Malley claims Merab Dvalishvili “Could get sued” after viral fan altercation

UFC bantamweight champion Sean O’Malley wonders if Merab Dvalishvili’s decision to confront a fan at a recent event could put their fight in jeopardy.

O’Malley and Dvalishvili will headline UFC 306 next month at the Las Vegas Sphere. The bantamweight title main event tops a stacked card at UFC 306, featuring a women’s flyweight trilogy between Alexa Grasso and Valentina Shevchenko.

Ahead of their upcoming fight, Dvalishvili attended the Craig Jones Invitational grappling tournament last weekend in Las Vegas. While watching the competition, a fan heckled Dvalishvili, leading the bantamweight contender to confront the heckler in the crowd face-to-face, grabbing the man’s hair.

You can watch the incident below.

UFC fighter Merab Dvalishvili just jumped the gate and grabbed a heckler by the hair 😳pic.twitter.com/5Lfmk2pusI

— Happy Punch (@HappyPunch) August 17, 2024

Sean O’Malley encourages fans to “Keep poking” Merab Dvalishvili

During a recent episode of the TimboSugarShow podcast, O’Malley reacted to Dvalishvili’s recent incident with a heckling fan.

“Merab had a little freakout,” O’Malley said. “This is what I heard: someone said ‘Suga’s your daddy!’ or something like that. So Merab climbs this three-foot fence, gets stuck damn near trying to get over, tries to jump over the other fence, and walks up there with his sassy hips and pulls his hair. That kid could sue him, 100 percent. You’re not allowed to physically touch someone else in public, that’s illegal…

“If that kid sued him, lawyer fees, lawyer this and lawyer that, it’s stressful. So if that kid decided to sue him right now, Merab might not make it to the fight…we’re in his head, so keep poking at him!”

As of this writing, Dvalishvili hasn’t been sued by the fan in the video above, and the UFC 306 main event remains intact.

O’Malley last defended the UFC bantamweight title against Marlon Vera at UFC 299 in March. He captured the belt by finishing Aljamain Sterling at UFC 292.

Dvalishvili earned the next title shot after a 10-fight winning streak. He most recently defeated former titleholder Henry Cejudo at UFC 298.