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Contrary to popular opinion, Robert Whittaker thinks UFC bantamweight champion Sean O’Malley would be the one posing problems for Merab Dvalishvili.
Whittaker was very impressed with O’Malley’s (18-1 MMA, 10-1 UFC) performance against Marlon Vera (21-9-1 MMA, 15-8 UFC) Saturday at UFC 299, where he battered “Chito” for five rounds.
“Mate, it was a landslide,” Whittaker said on his MMArcade podcast. “Sean was phenomenal, like not only was he striking on point, and I mentioned this in my predictions, that his spacing is so good and obviously he’s got long reach.
“He’s a tall guy for the division, but I think his arms just lead that. But his eyes, his instincts and his spacing just lead him to be able to strike and throw punches and fire off lefts and rights and be creative from the outside whenever he wants. And I will say on top of that, it looked like his speed was a notch higher.”
O’Malley called out featherweight champion Ilia Topuria, but is willing to fight Dvalishvili (17-4 MMA, 10-2 UFC) next. Whittaker sees Dvalishvili having a hard time closing the distance against O’Malley.
“I think Merab and Sean are a bad matchup,” Whittaker said. “I think Sean’s spacing and just his creativity and not to mention Sean has the entire skillset, the entire arsenal. If you think he’s not, like going to be working straight line attacks like that lead knee he did against Vera. He threw it in the third and that was only after he saw Vera shelling up and putting his head down.
“That was an adjustment on the move. If you don’t think he’s going to be working things like that for Merab, you’re kidding yourself. Not to mention Sean found the timing slot against Sterling, who is phenomenal in that division. I think it’s going to be a hard fight.”
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