Former UFC champ Matt Serra was not impressed with Sean O’Malley’s coach Tim Welch at UFC 306.
Merab Dvalishvili defeated O’Malley to capture the bantamweight title in the main event of the promotion’s debut card at Sphere in Las Vegas. Serra, who cornered Dvalishvili on many occasions in the past, reacted to the fight — and more specifically, Welch’s cornering efforts on his UFC Unfiltered podcast with comedian Jim Norton.
“This fight exposed him as a coach because when your guy is winning and knocking people out, sure, you look like a f*cking superhero,” Serra said. “When your fighter is obviously losing the fight — and starts losing rounds — Tim Welch was, like, not wanting to hurt [O’Malley’s] feelings. ‘OK, good round,’ no, you’re losing f*cking three rounds. You got to get in his ass. … He was afraid that he did not know how to handle his guy [with] that many rounds, and I thought his f*cking corner work was shit.
“So he exposed himself. [Dvalishvili] took care of business and Tim Welch had no answers for his fighter.”
O’Malley said he had “zero excuses” for his performance in the aftermath, and said he would take an extended period of time off following the second loss of his pro career. “Sugar” then revealed that he suffered a torn labrum, and will be heading for surgery on Oct. 3.
Deiveson Figueiredo | Photo by Carmen Mandato/Getty Images
Deiveson Figueiredo is confident that he should be first in line against newly crowned UFC bantamweight champion Merab Dvalishvili.
The former UFC flyweight kingpin has gone 3-0 so far at 135-pound with wins over Rob Font, Cody Garbrandt and Marlon Vera, and was at The Sphere this past Saturday to watch Dvalishvili dethrone Sean O’Malley in the main event of UFC 306 and mention his name at the post-fight press conference.
“I was watching the fight and in the end he looked at me, I was 10 meters away from him, and he started pointing at me,” Figueiredo said in an interview with MMA Fighting. “I was rooting for him because now we can make this fight happen. I thought he would call me out in the cage but he mentioned my name in interviews, and I’m here, man.”
Dvalishvili said the Brazilian “deserves it more” than top-contender Umar Nurmagomedov, who’s 6-0 so far in the UFC and recently beat Cory Sandhagen via decision.
“Umar talking about [a title shot], some bullshit there,” Dvalishvili said on Saturday. “[Before he fought Sandhagen] he defeated somebody [in their] debut and then now he wants to fight for the belt? You are out of your mind.
“Figueiredo deserves it more. He’s a former champion, he’s a big name. He’s been fighting. He already beat one former champion and two guys from the top 15. Actually, [Marlon] ‘Chito’ Vera doesn’t count because ‘Chito’ Vera is not a top-15 fighter. He sucks. But Figueiredo deserves it more. He has my respect. He’s a man and he’s been respectful and he’s cool and he didn’t get here because he’s somebody’s cousin. He got here by himself. He’s a good fighter. He’s been there. He was a champion. At least he’s humble and he’s a real fighter.”
Figueiredo agrees with the champion, adding that Nurmagomedov is still untested against the elite of the division. Nurmagomedov’s best wins other than Sandhagen were Raoni Barcelos and Brian Kelleher, both via first-round finish.
“Umar just got here,” Figueiredo said. “He just had his first fight against a tough guy and I’m sure he has to get tested more, to fight someone else first — maybe [O’Malley]. I’m already tested. I left a division where I was champion and moved up and fought strong guys. I had no easy fights. I definitely present more danger to Merab. I’m ready to fight him.
“People have been calling me out since I got to this division. Maybe they think I’m an easy fight, but I show them otherwise in the octagon. I’m ready, man. I’m ready to fight for the belt. I want to win that belt.”
Figueiredo said he would be willing to face Dvalishvili at UFC 310 on Dec. 7, if the champion is healthy for a relatively short turnaround. Dvalishvili competed in seven rounds this year, going 2-0 against Henry Cejudo and O’Malley. The Brazilian veteran said he will focus on grappling training to “confuse” Dvalishvili and become a two-division champion.
“It’s hard for Merab to change his style,” Figueiredo said. “His style is annoying, he trades a little bit and then takes you down pretty fast. You have to be really smart when you fight someone like Merab to put him in danger, too, and I am that guy. I have good jiu-jitsu, I’ve been working a lot on my grappling, and I’ll focus even more on my wrestling now that I’m aiming for this fight.”
“I’ve been evolving a lot in my grappling every since I moved up in weight,” he continued. “I left a division where I was more of a striker and brawled everybody, and now I see people doing more grappling in this division, so I went back a bit and re-activated my knowledge in grappling.”
UFC 306 is officially in the books, and Merab Dvalishvili is the new UFC bantamweight champion after defeating Sean O’Malley in the main event via unanimous decision. Where do both guys go from this past Saturday’s card, and with O’Malley announcing he’s having surgery, can he get back to a title shot quickly?
On an all-new edition of Between the Links, Jon Anik kicks off the show to give his reaction to the event, the Sphere experience with Joe Rogan and Daniel Cormier, Dvalishvili and Valentina Shevchenko becoming new champions, and more. Additionally, topics may include the two big fights announced for UFC 309 with Jon Jones vs. Stipe Miocic becoming official, along with Charles Oliveira vs. Michael Chandler 2 getting revealed as the co-main event, Conor McGregor’s absence from the octagon extending even longer, and whatever else is on your mind.
MMA Fighting’s Mike Heck and Jed Meshew take your questions all show long.
Watch the show live at 12:30 p.m. ET / 9:30 a.m. PT in the video above.
If you missed the show live, you can still watch above, or listen to the podcast version, which can be found below and on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, and wherever you get your pods.
Sean O’Malley was campaigning to fight Ilia Topuria — not Merab Dvalishvili — after defending his bantamweight title against Marlon Vera at UFC 299. Unfortunately for “Suga,” the promotion had other plans and awarded “The Machine” the next 135-pound title shot.
Dvalishvili went on to defeat O’Malley at UFC 306 last weekend in Las Vegas.
That loss ended any talk of facing off against “El Matador,” who is booked to defend his featherweight crown opposite former division titleholder, Max Holloway, atop the UFC 308 pay-per-view (PPV) card next month on “Fight Island” in Abu Dhabi, UAE.
“Some other better fight will come along,” Topuria told Marca. “It’s like the same with Paddy [Pimblett]. It seemed like a super attractive fight, but if you’re not at the [same] level, what can I do? You get defeated even before you get into the Octagon with me. I don’t even need to get in there for people to know that I’m better than you. So why fight?”
Fortunately for O’Malley, he can still compete for a title coming off his UFC 306 loss.
“I would like Sean O’Malley to do this: Take as much time as he wants off, and I believe Umar [Nurmagomedov] will beat Merab, and after that, Umar will give him a title shot coming off a loss,” Nurmagomedov’s manager, Ali Abdelaziz, told ESPN. “I think Sean O’Malley is one of the biggest stars in the sport. This is a business about making money, and I think Sean O’Malley deserves a title shot coming off a loss.”
Nurmagomedov and Dvalishvili are expected to collide at some point in early 2025.
Sean O’Malley | Photo by Christian Petersen/Getty Images
In the ever-shifting MMA landscape, ranking the world’s greatest fighters might seem like a fool’s errand, but that’s exactly what we’ve set out to do with the MMA Fighting Global Rankings. Here, our esteemed panel sorts out the movers and shakers from every division to provide you with the most definitive list of the best fighters on the planet.
Updated pound-for-pound rankings can be found here.
Sean O’Malley is no longer UFC bantamweight champion. How long does he stay near the top after such a humbling loss?
According to our panel, O’Malley’s defeat at the hands of Merab Dvalishvili at UFC 306 not only cost him his belt, he also slides down to No. 3 in the latest edition of the MMA Fighting Global Rankings, one spot behind the undefeated Umar Nurmagomedov. Add in the fact that O’Malley has stated he plans to take a considerable amount of time off to deal with an injury, and it shouldn’t surprise anyone if O’Malley falls even further in the fast-moving 135-pound division.
In the UFC 306 co-main event, Valentina Shevchenko reminded everyone why she’s one of the best to ever do it.
With a grinding, workwomanlike effort this past Saturday, “Bullet” hit the mark once more to finally earn a win over Alexa Grasso and regain the flyweight title. The series sits at 1-1-1, but given the controversial split draw of the second fight that Shevchenko arguably won, and her sheer dominance in the trilogy bout, you get the sense this rivalry has been put to bed for the time being.
Though Shevchenko, 36, is approaching the twilight of her career, her most recent effort showed she’s more than capable of still competing at an elite level so it’s not unreasonable to think she could add a few more championship rubies to her collection before it’s all said and done. Standing in her way are a number of worthy contenders, including UFC 306 co-main event backup Manon Fiorot and the fast-rising Natalia Silva, neither of whom has tasted defeat in the octagon yet.
Silva is one of several contenders to make major jumps in the latest MMA Fighting Global Rankings update, with Caio Borralho, Sean Brady, Diego Lopes, Umar Nurmagomedov, and Norma Dumont all picking up significant victories.
One important note, we had two GOATS depart from our rankings this month (Jon Jones, temporarily, due to 18 months of inactivity, Demetrious Johnson due to retirement) as well as one panelist, so if you’re wondering why there are so many shakeups up and down the board, that should help explain it.
If you need any more explanation, make sure to check out the latest edition of the MMA Fighting Rankings show.
Check out the complete September rankings below.
Heavyweight
Recent results for ranked fighters (previous ranking shown): No. 10 Serghei Spivac def. No. 8 Marcin Tybura, No. 15 Jairzinho Rozenstruik def. No. 9 Tai Tuivasa
Upcoming bouts featuring ranked fighters: No. 2 Alexander Volkov vs. No. 3 Ciryl Gane (UFC 308, Oct. 26), No. 9 Renan Ferreira vs. Francis Ngannou (PFL Super Fights: Battle of the Giants, Oct. 19), No. 10 Anatoly Malykhin vs. Reug Reug (ONE 169, Nov. 8), No. 14 Derrick Lewis vs. Jhonata Diniz (UFC Edmonton, Nov. 2)
Fighters also receiving votes (number of ballot appearances shown): Linton Vassell (4), Oleg Popov (3), Ryan Bader (2)
Falling out of the rankings (previous ranking shown): No. 2 Jon Jones (inactivity)
Upcoming bouts featuring ranked fighters: No. 1 Alex Pereira vs. No. 10 Khalil Rountree (UFC 307, Oct. 5), No. 3 Magomed Ankalaev vs. No. 7 Aleksandar Rakic (UFC 308, Oct. 26), No. 8 Nikita Krylov vs. No. 15 Azamat Murzakanov (UFC 309, Nov. 16), No. 9 Anatoly Malykhin vs. Reug Reug (heavyweight bout) (ONE Fight Night 28, Nov. 8),
Fighters also receiving votes (number of ballot appearances shown): Roman Dolidze (2), Bogdan Guskov (2), Impa Kasanganay (2), Anthony Smith (1)
Middleweight
Recent results for ranked fighters (previous ranking shown): No. 1 Dricus du Plessis def. No. 3 Israel Adesanya
Upcoming bouts featuring ranked fighters: No. 4 Robert Whittaker vs. No. 12 Khamzat Chimaev (UFC 308, Oct. 26), No. 7 Nassourdine Imavov vs. No. 8 (tied) Brendan Allen (UFC Paris, Sept. 28), No. 14 Roman Dolidze vs. Kevin Holland (UFC 307, Oct. 5), No. 15 Michel Pereira vs. Anthony Hernandez (UFC Fight Night, Oct. 19)
Fighters also receiving votes (number of ballot appearances shown): Anthony Hernandez (4), Fabian Edwards (1), Jack Hermansson (1)
Falling out of the rankings (previous ranking shown): No. 15 Anthony Hernandez
Welterweight
Recent results for ranked fighters (previous ranking shown): No. 9 Sean Brady def. No. 6 Gilbert Burns
Upcoming bouts featuring ranked fighters: No. 10 Stephen Thompson vs. No. 15 Joaquin Buckley (UFC 307, Oct. 5), No. 13 Geoff Neal vs. Rafael dos Anjos (UFC 308, Oct. 26)
Fighters also receiving votes (number of ballot appearances shown): Michael Morales (2), Colby Covington (1), Rinat Fakhretdinov (1), Vicente Luque (1), Magomed Magomedkerimov (1), Shamil Musaev (1), Magomed Umalatov (1)
Lightweight
Recent results for ranked fighters (previous ranking shown): No. 7 Usman Nurmagomedov def. Alexander Shabliy, No. 12 Dan Hooker def. No. 9 Mateusz Gamrot
Upcoming bouts featuring ranked fighters: No. 3 Max Holloway vs. Ilia Topuria (featherweight bout) (UFC 308, Oct. 26), No. 12 Renato Moicano vs. No. 14 Benoit Saint Denis (UFC Paris, Sept. 28), No. 13 A.J. McKee vs. Paul Hughes (PFL Super Fights: Battle of the Giants, Oct. 19)
Fighters also receiving votes (number of ballot appearances shown): Paddy Pimblett (3), Jalin Turner (1), Matt Frevola (1), Tofiq Musayev (1)
Falling out of the rankings (previous ranking shown): No. 15 Paddy Pimblett
Featherweight
Recent results for ranked fighters (previous ranking shown): No. 11 Diego Lopes def. No. 5 Brian Ortega
Upcoming bouts featuring ranked fighters: No. 1 Ilia Topuria vs. No. 3 Max Holloway (UFC 308, Oct. 26), No. 15 Dan Ige vs. Lerone Murphy (UFC 308, Oct. 26)
Fighters also receiving votes (number of ballot appearances shown): Lerone Murphy (2), Chihiro Suzuki (2), Movlid Khaybulaev (1), Bryce Mitchell (1), Adam Borics (1)
Bantamweight
Recent results for ranked fighters (previous ranking shown): No. 2 Merab Dvalishvili def. No. 1 Sean O’Malley, No. 8 Umar Nurmagomedov def. No. 4 Cory Sandhagen, No. 9 (tied) Deiveson Figueiredo def. No. 12 Marlon Vera
Upcoming bouts featuring ranked fighters: No. 4 Patchy Mix vs. Leandro Higo (Bellator Paris, Nov. 16), No. 7 Jose Aldo vs. Mario Bautista (UFC 307, Oct. 5), No. 14 Rob Font vs. Kyler Phillips (UFC Vegas 99, Oct. 19)
Fighters also receiving votes (number of ballot appearances shown): Magomed Magomedov (3), Jonathan Martinez (2), Kai Asakura (1), Mario Bautista (1), Kyler Phillips (1)
Flyweight
Recent results for ranked fighters (previous ranking shown): No. 7 (tied) Kai Kara-France def. No. 11 Steve Erceg
Upcoming bouts featuring ranked fighters: No. 2 (tied) Brandon Royval vs. No. 8 Tatsuro Taira (UFC Vegas 98, Oct. 12), No. 4 Brandon Moreno vs. No. 6 Amir Albazi (UFC Edmonton, Nov. 2), No. 7 Adriano Moraes vs. Danny Kingad (ONE 169, Nov. 8), No. 13 Matheus Nicolau vs. No. 15 Asu Almabayev (UFC Vegas 99, Oct. 19)
Fighters also receiving votes (number of ballot appearances shown): Hiromasa Ougikubo (2), Askar Akarov (1), Kairat Akhmetov (1), Jafel Filho (1), Tagir Ulanbekov (1)
Falling out of the rankings (previous ranking shown): No. 4 Demetrious Johnson (retired)
Women’s Bantamweight
Recent results for ranked fighters (previous ranking shown): No. 12 Norma Dumont def. No. 6 Irene Aldana, No. 8 Karol Rosa def. No. 10 Pannie Kianzad, No. 9 Yana Santos def. Chelsea Chandler
Fighters also receiving votes (number of ballot appearances shown): Loma Lookboonmee (3), Tecia Pennington (2), Karolina Kowalkiewicz (1), Danni McCormack (1)
Falling out of the rankings (previous ranking shown): N/A
A refresher on the ground rules:
The six-person voting panel consists of MMA Fighting staffers Alexander K. Lee, Guilherme Cruz, Mike Heck, E. Casey Leydon, Damon Martin, and Jed Meshew.
Fighters will be removed from the rankings if they do not compete within 18 months of their most recent bout. Updates to the rankings are typically completed following each month’s UFC pay-per-view.
Should a fighter announce their retirement, our panel will decide whether that fighter should immediately be removed from the rankings or maintain their position until further notice. (Let’s put it this way: We’d have taken Khabib Nurmagomedov out of our rankings a lot quicker than the UFC did.)
Holding a promotion’s title does not guarantee that fighter will be viewed as the best in their promotion. Additionally, fighters who regularly compete or hold titles in multiple weight classes are eligible to be ranked in multiple lists.
Thoughts? Questions? Concerns? Make your voice heard in the comments below.
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