After losing the bantamweight title in the main event of UFC 306 on Saturday night, some questioned whether Sean O'Malley had an off night.
Dana White in his post-fight press conference said that in his opinion, "Suga" didn't look himself but this has since been dispelled by O'Malley himself.
The former champ said that he was coming into the fight feeling great and there were glimpses of that in the fight.
Despite it feeling fairly one-sided to a lot of people, O'Malley won two rounds on two of the scorecards meaning that he wasn't that far away from retaining the belt via split decision.
A former opponent of his disagrees with the idea that the main event played out how it did due to one man not firing, rather than Merab Dvalishvili being incredibly effective.
In his recap of UFC 306, Aljamain Sterling disagreed that O'Malley wasn't firing on all cylinders at the Sphere this past weekend.
The former bantamweight champion, who was in Dvalishvili's corner, pointed to how "Suga" started the fight looking great, saying that this only changed once the challenger started to have success.
Not to mention the third round, which he won on two scorecards, and the final round where he hurt his opponent with a body kick and tried to find the finish in the closing moments.
Having faced O'Malley back at UFC 292, Sterling helped Dvalishvili prepare for him by replicating his style.
When reflecting on the fight, he said that the defending champion came out exactly how they expected him to which meant they were able to execute their game plan.
I give credit where due, he was well prepared to say he looked flat makes no sense. The opening bell when he's coming out with those faints, those hip twitches that he does so well where he's shaking off to the side, shaking off to the other side and then looking for those long strikes. He came out exactly like Conor McGregor did against Khabib. Now I gave Merab that same exact look, coming out with the fingers, long, trying to hit the feints and trying to go to the body, trying to go up top.
Read also: Demetrious Johnson Highlights ‘X-Factor’ That Could Make A Difference In Dvalishvili vs Nurmagomedov
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