Sean O’Malley makes surprising admission about ‘borderline embarrassing’ UFC title loss

Sean O’Malley is one of the most popular fighters in the UFC right now, but his reign as the promotion’s bantamweight champ didn’t last long.

O’Malley won the bantamweight belt with a knockout of Aljamain Sterling in 2023. After defending his belt with a lopsided decision win over Marlon “Chito” Vera early last year, he then lost the belt last September, suffering a decision loss to Georgia’s Merab Dvalishvili.

While O’Malley has not fought since, it was recently announced that he’ll be given a shot at redemption at Dvalishvili at UFC 316 on June 7.

Speaking on the Helwani show soon after the rematch was announced, O’Malley made a surprising admission about his training camp for his first fight with the Georgian.

🗣️ Sean O’Malley:

“Just today, I grappled more than I grappled last fight camp for Merab.”

🎥 @arielhelwani #UFC316pic.twitter.com/ODvy9LZp5U

— Championship Rounds (@ChampRDS) April 7, 2025

Sean O’Malley opens up on training issues before first Merab Dvalishvili fight

Apparently, he was barely able to grapple. In fact, he has already grappled more in preparation for their rematch than he did before their first fight.

“This sounds like I’m exaggerating, and I’m not,” O’Malley said. “Today, I grappled more — just today, this morning’s practice — I grappled more today than I grappled last fight camp for Merab.

“We did seven six-minute rounds, grappling hard, hard, hard, picking the hardest guys, just straight grappling,” O’Malley continued. “I wasn’t able to do that once last camp. I had a torn labrum. Everyone deals with tears in their labrum different. There’s different levels of tears. That last camp was not a great camp. It was great for what I was able to do.

“I felt good going into the fight, as good as I could, but right now, I literally grappled more today than I did that entire last camp. I know I could wrestle better than I’ve shown in that last fight. That was borderline embarrassing, what I was able to do.”

It’s clear that Sean O’Malley feels he was not at his best the night he lost his title. Still, he was careful not to take anything away from his rival.

“Merab’s tough,” he said. “Merab’s probably considered the greatest bantamweight of all time, as of right now.”