Syndicate MMA head coach John Wood doesn’t think UFC bantamweight champ Sean O'Malley could find any training partner to help him prep for Merab Dvalishvili’s style.
Dvalishvili (17-4 MMA, 10-2 UFC) challenges O’Malley (17-1 MMA, 10-1 UFC) in the UFC 306 main event Sept. 14 at Sphere in Las Vegas. O’Malley is confident that Dvalishvili won’t be able to test his wrestling, but Wood thinks Dvalishvili’s high-octane style is something O’Malley will have a hard time finding in the training room.
“Here’s the thing with that, is there’s a lot of really good strikers, and I’ll give it up,” Wood told MMA Junkie Radio. “Sean, he’s a sniper, he’s a specialist, and Sean’s very well rounded everywhere. He’s got a good coach. They have a good game plan. They come out and do good things. He’s a specialist, and I say that with respect because he is good on the ground, he is good at avoiding takedowns.
“But there’s a lot of really, really good strikers, and there are guys that we have in the gym, world champions that are able to simulate that style of striking. I’m not going to say they’re as good as Sean because he’s the champ, but there is nobody out there that you can bring in that will simulate what Merab is going to do for five rounds. It’s a pretty clear-cut case of we know what they want to do, they know what we want to do, it’s just about how we implement those game plans.”
Wood is not surprised to see that Dvalishvili is a favorite over O’Malley. However, according to DraftKings, the gap has now closed and the fight is virtually a pick’em. O’Malley is just the slightest of underdogs at -105 against Dvalishvili, who’s a -115 favorite.
For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 306.
