Merab Dvalishvili proved in the main event of UFC 306 that he had the counter to Sean O'Malley's style.
The new bantamweight champion was able to close the distance on "Suga" and implement his grappling and despite several close scorecards, the challenger was seemingly in control of the fight for the vast majority of the duration.
O'Malley did have some success with his striking, especially in the final moments of the fight but he wasn't able to catch Dvalishvili in the same way that he was able to his teammate, Aljamain Sterling.
The "Funkmaster" has openly admitted that he made some crucial mistakes in that fight back at UFC 292 that as we saw this past weekend, could have been very different if Sterling had more effectively closed the gap on his opponent.
Henry Cejudo Reviews Sean O'Malley's Performance At UFC 306
On a recent episode of the Pound 4 Pound podcast, former bantamweight champion Henry Cejudo weighed in with his thoughts on the fight.
"Triple C" took this opportunity to gloat about how he correctly predicted how the main event would play out based on what he has seen from both men.
Having faced both Sterling and Dvalishvili in the past, Cejudo felt that the challenger would be too much for O'Malley over five rounds.
He also believes that O'Malley's title back at UFC 292 was a "fluke" after he was able to stop Sterling without really having his grappling game put to the test.
Cejudo made reference to how he was able to put up a better fight against Dvalishvili at UFC 298, where he lost via unanimous decision.
What can I say? I predicted these things. Sean is not accustomed to going five rounds and he is no accustomed to people on his legs and I just felt like, I still go back and say hey, that fight with Aljamain Sterling, that was a fluke too. Aljamain was still in that fight and people thought I was just hating. It's like no, I've been in there with Merab, I did a whole lot better than Sean did when I fought Merab. I mean I took down Merab, like Merab is lucky that I had that groin injury.
Read also: Sean O’Malley’s Coach Reveals What He Said To Enrage Merab Dvalishvili At Noche UFC 306