‘Are All Georgians Runts?’

Sean O’Malley is not afraid to talk a bit of trash. He may currently be feuding with Conor McGregor, but “Suga” definitely tried to emulate the infamous mind games and fighting words of “The Notorious” Irishman during his rise to championship status. That’s continued in the lead up to his latest title defense opposite Merab Dvalishvili, which is scheduled for the main event of UFC 306 on Sept. 14, 2024 inside The Sphere in Las Vegas, Nevada.

O’Malley and his coach, Tim Welch, have already gotten a rise out of “The Machine” on several occasions, but it’s been fairly mild trash talk … until now. In a recent tweet, O’Malley posed a simple question to Dvalishvili, as well as his countrymen and possible future foe, Featherweight kingpin Ilia Topuria: “Are all Georgians runts?”

Unsurprisingly, Dvalishvili is pissed! The proud Georgian didn’t take long to respond, and he made it clear that he’s ready to take a swing at O’Malley the next time he runs into “Suga,” regardless of whether that’s in the cage or not.

Dvalishvili responded, “You want to disrespect me – this is one thing – we will be professional and settle it in the cage … but now you and your coach crossed the line and disrespected my country. You will pay for this when I see you outside of the cage.”

O’Malley, ever the troll, was quick to offer up a sarcastic apology and wrote back, “I thought Georgia was a state my bad.”

At the time of writing, Ilia Topuria has yet to respond, likely because his account wasn’t tagged correctly. However, legions of Georgian fight fans have found O’Malley’s initial remark and are actively bashing “Suga” as we speak. Regardless, Topuria has previously expressed interest in beating up O’Malley and expects an easy victory.

Nationalist trash talk is hardly new in MMA. McGregor, Colby Covington, and Chael Sonnen have all punched below that belt line, for example. It rarely ends well, but O’Malley has succeeded in creating further buzz for his next title defense.

Provided Dvalishvili doesn’t do something stupid that puts the fight in jeopardy.