While Dana White isn’t interested at all in rematching Song Yadong and Henry Cejudo after an eye poke cut their UFC Seattle main event short, he does have his eye on another rematch which some may argue is just as unnecessary.
Merab Dvalishvili recently defended his bantamweight title against Umar Nurmagomedov, defeating the Dagestani fighter via a clear cut decision. No need for a rematch against Umar, Dvalishvili said in a recent interview. Instead he was looking to rematch Petr Yan or Sean O’Malley, and he believed the UFC was on the same page with him about it.
Now White seems to be confirming Dvalishvili’s comments. During the UFC Seattle post-fight press conference, the UFC CEO fielded a question from the press asking whether they were considering O’Malley as Dvalishvili’s next opponent, despite there being other interesting match-ups available.
“They want to fight each other,” White said of O’Malley and Dvalishvili. “And I think people want to see it.”
There’s no doubt that O’Malley remains the biggest star at bantamweight, and when you move the needle then you’re never too far away from a title shot. “Suga” hasn’t fought since losing the belt to Merab at UFC 306 in September 2024 — he subsequently underwent hip surgery and has since sequestered himself from the online world in an attempt to level up and win his belt back.
Whether that dedication has anything to do with UFC brass being so hawkish on having him rematch “The Machine” for the title upon his return is unclear. As White said, people are interested … even though Dvalishvili controlled O’Malley thoroughly through their first match, and there’s little reason to think a second meeting so soon would elicit a different outcome.
What do you think, Maniacs? Are you interested? Or is this another Song vs. Cejudo situation where we saw everything we need to know about that match-up, and running it back again would just confirm the obvious?
This story originally appeared on MMA Mania
