Ben Askren: Sean O'Malley rematching Merab Dvalishvili at UFC 316 is 'a bad move'

Ben Askren thinks Sean O’Malley working issues again with Merab Dvalishvili is a dangerous transfer.

O’Malley (18-2 MMA, 10-2 UFC) rematches Dvalishvili (19-4 MMA, 12-2 UFC) June 7 within the UFC 316 headliner at Prudential Middle in Newark, N.J. O’Malley misplaced his bantamweight title to Dvalishvili at UFC 306 by unanimous resolution in September.

Askren would have most well-liked to see O’Malley rebound towards lower-ranked opposition versus leaping into a right away rematch with Dvalishvili.

“I type of suppose this can be a dangerous transfer,” Askren mentioned on his “Funky and the Champ” present with Daniel Cormier. “If he will get beat up by Merab once more, then he loses an entire bunch of attraction as a result of it’s like, nicely, you already misplaced to the champ twice, so till the champ goes away, they’re not going to provide you a 3rd shot towards him. He might have fought some, possibly, lower-ranked guys.

“In opposition to guys who can’t take him down, he type of seems to be like an actual freaking famous person, proper? He’s actually thrilling, very numerous hanging assault, so he might have regarded actually good, constructed the battle again up into one thing larger. However now, I really feel like everyone seems to be feeling, ‘Hey, we simply noticed this, it wasn’t aggressive. Why do we have to see this once more?’”

Since their first battle, O’Malley underwent surgical procedure to restore a torn labrum in his hip. In the meantime, Dvalishvili notched his first title protection by handing Umar Nurmagomedov his first loss at UFC 311 in January.

“I want Sean would have taken some extra time to enhance his wrestling, however he nonetheless has dynamic hanging, he has knockout capabilities,” Askren mentioned. “Merab has been comparatively unstoppable trying in his final handful of fights.”