Featured Image Credit: UFC
Topics: UFC, MMA, Sean O'Malley, Dana White
Marcus Banks
Sean O’Malley lost his bantamweight title to Merab Dvalishvili at Noche UFC but one moment during the fight has gone viral on social media.
Dvalishvili cruised to a unanimous victory over O’Malley at the Sphere in Las Vegas, a historic event in combat sports history.
The UFC forked out over £15m to host the event which celebrated Mexican Independence Day and the Georgian was the star of the show after handing O’Malley only his second defeat in his professional career.
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O’Malley had no answer to Dvalishvili’s intense grappling in a bout that produced many questionable moments, one of which was the new champion turning to O’Malley’s coach Tim Welch just seconds into the fight to exchange words.
However, that was to be topped by what happened in the second round which Dana White labelled ‘weird’ during his post-event press conference.
After controlling his opponent for much of the round, Dvalishvili decided to repeatedly kiss O’Malley on the back while attempting to lock in a submission.
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His actions led to referee Herb Dean telling him to ‘stop that’ before releasing the hold and walking back to his corner but a furious O’Malley immediately shot to his feet and let off a barrage of punches as the clock ticked down.
Dean told Dvalishvili ‘that was your fault’ and that he ‘shouldn’t have done the kissing’.
Reacting to the crazy moment, White said: “Then the kissing in the back and standing up and walking away before the bell? I have no idea, Merab does some s***. It was weird, but not shocking.”
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After winning the belt, the assembled media needed to get an answer from the 33-year-old as to why he decided to kiss his opponent, something which we’ve never seen in the Octagon before.
He explained he just wanted to make fun out of his title rival and show he was dominating the bout.
Dvalishvili said: “Yeah, so I grabbed his neck, and then he had 10 seconds left, and I know he can wait – he’s not going to go to sleep or tap, and I wanted to make just a little fun of him you know, and make him – just, you know, I don’t hate the guy, just make fun of him but at the same time give him a little kiss to show that I’m dominating, I control this fight, I break you.
“That’s why I was kissing, but I had too much fun there, and I guess I lost the time control, but when I let go he followed me, and he punched the back of my head and I started protecting myself again, and I said, 'referee, I’m sorry referee, I’m sorry!”