Holloway: Sharpshooter ‘Suga’ Finishes Merab

Max Holloway knows a thing or two about slick striking, and he’s picking ‘Suga’ over ‘The Machine’ at Noche UFC because he’s impressed with O’Malley’s skills.

Max Holloway isn’t in Las Vegas for this weekend’s big UFC 306 event featuring Sean O’Malley vs. Merab Dvalishvili. He’s sticking around in Hawaii where he’s busy training for his own big fight against Ilia Topuria in October at UFC 308. But he’s been following the build-up for O’Malley vs. Dvalishvili closely, and now he’s sharing his prediction for the fight in a new YouTube video.

“Merab — great cardio, great pressure, great fighter,” Holloway said. “But one hole in his game that we’ve seen over and over again is he gets caught. He gets caught, and he gets caught early. It’s almost like he needs to get woken up, and then he finally turns on and the gears start working. Everything starts flowing, and he gets after it.”

“But if there’s one guy in the bantamweight division that you do not wanna get caught by, it’s Sean. A lot of guys tease Sean, how he’s skinny and lanky and long and looks brittle and blah blah blah. He looks like this. He dyes his hair, bro. That’s just who he is. That’s just how he is. That’s how he carries himself. But you cannot take away that this guy can fight.”

“This guy can crack,” he continued. “He knocks people out. He lands. He’s a sharp shooter. And my belief, in this fight, a lot of people have been asking me and waiting to see who I pick. I’m going Sean, man. I’m going Sean.”

“Merab, he likes getting hit,” Holloway concluded. “And if you give a guy like Sean O’Malley the opportunity of getting hit and he hurts you, it’s almost like a 90% chance that he’s gonna finish you and put you away. And that is the only reason why I’m running with Sean.”

Not many people were giving O’Malley much of a chance coming into his title fight with Aljamain Sterling back in August 2023. But after seeing him sidestep Aljo’s shot and knock him out with a perfect counter, everyone sees “Suga’s” path to victory against Merab. Yes, he’ll have to stay upright to pull that off. But every round starts on the feet and Dvalishvili has one finish in his twelve UFC fights.

That means at least five chances for O’Malley to catch Dvalishvili coming in. He caught Sterling at the end of the second round. Can he catch “The Machine” early too, or will Merab’s relentless pressure keep him on the backfoot? We like Max Holloway’s assessment of the fight, but oddsmakers have this one a near pick’em for a reason.