In a fight that will definitely go down as one of the weirdest title fights in UFC history, Merab Dvalishvili gains revenge on behalf of his team and secures the UFC bantamweight championship, defeating Sean O'Malley in the main event of UFC 306: Noche UFC.
After a start that saw Dvalishvili and O'Malley's corner be warned for verbally sparring with one another during the fight's opening seconds, Dvalishvili had a strong performance in the first, thanks to a couple of takedowns and a guillotine choke attempt.
Dvalishvili continued his dominance in the second round, scoring a couple more takedowns and rode it out in top position. Dvalishvili had another choke attempt in the second round's closing seconds when more bizarreness unfolded. The Georgian kissed O'Malley's back, causing O'Malley to fire off a punch to the back of Dvalishvili's head before the end of the round.
The third round proved to be more even, with Dvalishvili continuing to find success on the ground, but O'Malley delivering the fight's strongest strikes in the final minute of the round. Dvalishvili needed just a minute or so in the fourth round to score another takedown, working over O'Malley in top position and continuing to pummel to keep control of the defending champion.
Even with O'Malley stuffing takedown attempts in the latter rounds, Dvalishvili was dominant when he got on top. Dvalishvili even rocked O'Malley in the closing seconds of the fourth round -- a round in which he completely outlanded O'Malley by approximately 60 punches.
Dvalishvili looked to stay on the outside in the fifth round but had to deal with damaging front kicks from O'Malley. Dvalishvili, however, managed to survive the round and landed two additional takedowns.
One judge scored the fight 49-46 and the other two 48-47, all in Dvalishvili's favor.
Merab Dvalishvili Captures Bantamweight Championship With Strong Decision Win Over Sean O'Malley
Dvalishvili has now 11 straight wins after dropping his initial two in the Octagon, coming into the UFC off Dana White: Looking for a Fight.
O'Malley suffers the second loss of his MMA career. O'Malley won the championship with a knockout of Aljamain Sterling - Dvalishvili's friend and teammate - at UFC 292. O'Malley retained the title against Marlon "Chito" Vera at UFC 299 in a rematch from O'Malley's first UFC loss.