Sean O'Malley talks rematch with Merab Dvalishvili – picks between Charles Oliveira vs Ilia Topuria.

Mixed Martial Arts

Full UFC 316 Main Card on June 7, 2025 in Newark, NJ 🇺🇸. 

UFC 316 –  Dvalishvili vs O’Malley 2 on June 7, 2025 in Newark, NJ for the UFC Bantamweight championship is less than a week away! Check out the full UFC 316 Countdown below; this is a full backgrounder for the main and co-main event (Julianna Pena vs Kayla Harrison for the UFC Women’s Bantamweight championship). 

The UFC 316 Embedded Vlog series has released with Ep. 1 up right now. This series follows the fighters competing at UFC 316 in a behind the scenes look on fight week leading up to Saturday's event. It shows their training, nutrition and overall day to day life – pretty cool to see! Generally there’s six Embedded Vlogs that get released over the duration of fight week leading up to Saturday; all of them will be posted here. 

Ep. 2 of UFC 316 Embedded: Vlog Series is out now!

Ep. 3 of UFC 316 Embedded: Vlog Series is out now!

For the first time since 2020, Sean O’Malley has revealed that he won’t be dying his hair for his rematch against UFC Bantamweight champion Merab Dvalishvili at UFC 316. 

Former UFC Women’s Featherweight and two-time Bantamweight champion, Amanda Nunes hinted at a return to the octagon, wanting the winner of the UFC Women’s Bantamweight title fight between Julianna Pena vs Kayla Harrison.

“I’m a lioness. I cannot be away from this game and I am so ready to get back here.”

At UFC 316 media day, Sean O’Malley says that longevity is on his mind every day and that he wants to stick around as long as possible. O’Malley mentions that this may be his first fight in his prime [UFC 316] and that he’s been cutting out distractions in his life to make him a better person, which in turn will make him a better fighter. O’Malley feels life has slowed down in a good way and he’s able to be more present with family – he feels he would’ve got to this point regardless of how his previous fight with Dvalishvili went; it’s something he’s wanted to do for a while. 

When asked if he [Sean O’Malley] must knock out Merab Dvalishvili at UFC 316, O’Malley says he believes he can win in any which way. Should he be victorious, O’Malley says it’s definitely possible a trilogy with Dvalishvili takes place; O’Malley says he likes having options. O’Malley doesn’t believe Dvalishvili got the best version of him; O’Malley acknowledges Dvalishvili as the greatest Bantamweight of all time. 

When asked about Conor McGregor being excited for his rematch at UFC 316 along with another comment of similar preparation to his, Sean O’Malley said he’s grateful to have watched Conor and that he’ll forever be a huge fan.

“I’m pumped the relationship is back to good.”

Sean O’Malley gives his pick between Charles Oliveira vs Ilia Topuria at UFC 317 on June 28, 2025 in Las Vegas, NV for the UFC Lightweight championship.

“My heart says Charles, my brain says Ilia.”

Merab Dvalishvili says he believes Sean O’Malley is more humble compared to their first fight as the leadup to it, he was being disrespectful. 

Merab Dvalishvili has an opponent in mind should he get past Sean O’Malley at UFC 316.

“Looks like Cory Sandhagen is ready for me. He’s a great contender. He beat a lot of guy in our division. I don’t mind to take another quick turnaround and fight one more time this year in either New York or Las Vegas.”

Kayla Harrison says that Women’s UFC Bantamweight champion Julianna Pena doesn’t excel at fighting so she must excel at trash talk. 

Julianna Pena says she isn’t talking trash but rather is defending herself from comments made by Harrison such as her blaming the media for giving her [Pena] the delusion for thinking she could defeat Harrison. Or Harrison’s agent saying that she [Harrison] would beat Pena by murder. 

Kevin Holland says that Belal Muhammad’s best win was Sean Brady though he’s never thought the world of Belal; Belal is a hard worker but as long as you outwork Belal during training camp, you can outwork him during the fight, says Holland. 

Bryce Mitchell is moving down to Bantamweight – his debut will be against Said Nurmagomedov at UFC Abu Dhabi on July 26, 2025, headlined by Robert Whittaker vs Reinier de Ridder. 

Interim UFC Heavyweight champion Tom Aspinall wants to be active and for the division to be active.

“We want this Heavyweight division active. We want to give these contenders a chance to fight. We want a defending champion. Why is this division so stagnant all the time? Let’s make the Heavyweight division great again. I want to get two fights in by the end of the year.”