Sean O’Malley Let Dana White Down with ‘Flat’ Performance at UFC 306

Sean O’Malley has not only lost his UFC bantamweight title but also let down the man who runs the show: UFC president Dana White.

Sean O’Malley

Before the fight with Merab Dvalishvili, O’Malley promised an extravagant first-round knockout. He even went so far as to say that Dvalishvili could sleep with his wife if O’Malley failed to knock him out. Now, ‘Suga’ is licking his wounds and nursing his injured pride after suffering a loss via unanimous decision at UFC 306.

Furthermore, Dana White was very vocal about his former champion’s performance and admitted to being pretty disappointed in his young star.

Dana White opens up about Sean O’Malley’s performance at UFC 306

“He looked flat,” Dana White said at the post-fight press conference, speaking on O’Malley’s performance (H/T MMA Fighting). “He didn’t look sharp.”

In fact, ‘Suga’ struggled to land any significant damage in the fight, and it wasn’t until the end of the last round that he finally had a compelling moment. O’Malley landed a beautiful front kick on Dvalishvili’s body and hurt his opponent. Unfortunately, ‘Suga’ failed to capitalize on the moment and finish the fight. The horn would eventually sound, and the fight was over. Dvalishvili would capture his first-ever title with scores of 49-46, 48-47, and 48-47 to land the unanimous decision victory.

“He didn’t look crisp until the last round,” White continued. “He hurt him with that body shot, and he knew he hurt him with the body shot, and he kept going in trying to finish. But I looked at the punch stats; it was like six in a couple of the rounds.”

UFC 306

At the end of the day, the tenacity of Merab Dvalishvili was just too much for Sean O’Malley. ‘Suga’ could never get rolling offensively because he was forced to constantly fend off the takedown or was too busy being controlled.

Now, Sean O’Malley has nothing left to do other than take time and start launching a comeback to reclaim his lost UFC bantamweight title.