T.J. Dillashaw didn’t expect Merab Dvalishvili to look that dominant in his first UFC championship fight.
Dillashaw, a former UFC bantamweight champion, was taken away by how Dvalishvili (18-4 MMA, 11-2 UFC) looked against Sean O'Malley in the main event of UFC 306 earlier this month in Las Vegas. Dvalishvili took the 135-pound title from O’Malley (18-1 MMA, 10-1 UFC), outpointing him in a unanimous decision.
“It’s not that I didn’t expect it,” Dillashaw said on the Jaxxon Podcast. “I knew that it was very close on the betting odds and when I had to go and pick this fight, I knew that Merab had a chance to just pressure the f*ck out of him. The guy is the Tasmanian Devil. He never stops and continues to shoot shots. I knew it was a possibility, but I thought – especially after watching how O’Malley has composed himself and how well he’s done on his feet using his feints, distance and angles – I thought he’d be able to keep that distance and control, be hard to take down and spark him. That’s what I thought could happen, as well.
“I didn’t think it was going to be this easy for Merab. Merab made him look weak – very weak.”
Dillashaw does think O’Malley has the technique to beat Dvalishvili, and is not ruling him out to win should they rematch in the future.
“O’Malley has the skills to beat this guy. He just didn’t use them,” Dillashaw said. “You can feint to freeze him, get outside his shoulder, so the takedowns are not there.”
Dvalishvili now holds wins over several former champions including Jose Aldo, Petr Yan, Henry Cejudo, and now O’Malley. Although not official, many expect him to make his first title defense against undefeated Umar Nurmagomedov.
In defeat, O’Malley came up short in his second title defense attempt. Prior to the loss, his only other defeat was a 2020 injury TKO to Marlon Vera. He won the title against Aljamain Sterling in August 2023 and defended against Marlon Vera in March.
