Cory Sandhagen explains Sean O'Malley's 'advantage' for UFC title rematch vs. Merab Dvalishvili

Cory Sandhagen thinks the odds could be swayed into Sean O'Malley’s favor in a potential UFC bantamweight title rematch vs. Merab Dvalishvili.

Although O’Malley (18-2 MMA, 10-2 UFC) had limited success when he lost the 135-pound belt to Dvalishvili (19-4 MMA, 12-2 UFC) by unanimous decision at UFC 306 in September, “Suga” has expressed that he felt he deserved the nod on the scorecards, and revealed he entered with a hip injury which has since required surgery.

UFC CEO Dana White recently hinted that O’Malley will get an immediate rematch against Dvalishvili next, and although that might seem unfair to the rest of the division given he only defended one during his brief reign, perennial contender Sandhagen understands why the organization would go in that direction.

“I’m not surprised – we all know why,” Sandhagen told MMA Junkie. “O’Malley has a really big following. That’s the reason. Umar (Nurmagomedov) and Merab’s fight was much closer than O’Malley and Merab’s fight. If you were going to give a rematch to anyone you would probably give it to the guy that was closer, if it was just pen and paper of what makes sense. But there’s a lot of things that go into the sport, and being more famous than other people is one of them. Sean O’Malley has that leverage over everybody, and good on him. He worked really hard in order to gain that, so I’m not going to hate on him for it. But that’s definitely why.”

In the first fight, Dvalishvili was able to mix up his striking and takedowns to keep O’Malley guessing and get the decision. O’Malley’s big moment in the fight came when he backed Dvalishvili off with a hard body kick late in the final round, but other than that, he struggled to connect with damaging strikes.

Sandhagen thinks O’Malley could build on his sporadic points of success in a rematch, but in order to win, he has to be on point in every facet of the game.

“It’s so funny because that’s literally the only thing O’Malley scored the entire fight that was significant, and it was way at the end,” Sandhagen said. “I just think that’s funny because a lot of people are talking about the one body kick. It’s like, ‘Dude, you lost the entire rest of the fight.’ You can make an argument, but the vibe of that fight to me was that O’Malley was losing and he was the one not in control of that fight. But I could definitely see a situation where O’Malley comes back and he does really well. I love underdog stories and I assume O’Malley will probably be the underdog.

“I love rooting for an underdog, so maybe O’Malley will do well, but it’s hard for me to imagine the fight going too different from the first one, but also at the same time, the guy who has the puncher’s chance obviously their ability to knock the person out goes up if you give them another 25 minutes to try to figure out how to do so. It’s definitely an advantage for O’Malley going into this fight.”

With the rematch likely on deck, Sandhagen (17-5 MMA, 10-4 UFC) will use the meantime to try to build a title shot case of his own. He meets Deiveson Figueiredo (24-4-1 MMA, 13-4-1 UFC) in the main event of UFC on ESPN 67 on May 3 in Des Moines, Iowa (ESPN2, ESPN+), and thinks the right type of performance could elevate him to the forefront of the title conversation.

Sandhagen thinks a fight against O’Malley would be the more-desired option for the UFC and the fans, but he is also intrigued by the puzzle that is Dvalishvili, and would relish the chance to end his winning streak and take the strap.

“Merab’s a fine champion,” Sandhagen said. “I don’t really think too much about what Merab is as a champion from a fan’s standpoint, but I think Merab is super skilled. He’s on like a 13-fight win streak. You don’t just oops your way into winning 13 fights. You have to be very good in order to do that. Merab’s obviously one of the best guys in the sport right now, and I think if me and him fight, it would be a really interesting fight. I think I can win that fight for sure. I think that I can be able to control the space similar to the way O’Malley was, but I’m just a way better wrestler than O’Malley is, offensively and defensively. I hit harder now. I’m very athletic.

“I didn’t get to show a lot of the new things I’ve been working on in the last one because Umar was wrestling the sh*t out of me so much, but I think I do awesome against Merab. We’ve kind of seen him fight everyone else. … I go out and I beat Figgy really well, I don’t really see a situation where you can’t at least understand the argument that I should be fighting for the belt next.”

For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC on ESPN 67.