Sean O’Malley essentially handpicked his first title defense by plucking Marlon “Chito” Vera to serve as his counterpart in UFC 299’s main event.
By all accounts, Vera shouldn’t sniff a title shot right now after losing to Cory Sandhagen and then scoring an uninspiring win over Pedro Munhoz, but a victory over O’Malley from 2020 was all that mattered when booking the matchup. Because O’Malley commands an audience as a fast-rising UFC star, his desire to avenge the lone loss of his career shut out more deserving contenders like Merab Dvalishvili, who sits on a remarkable 10-fight win streak yet is on the outside looking in when it comes to O’Malley’s first title defense.
UFC welterweight Matt Brown believes that was all done with a purpose — so O’Malley could at least get one title defense under his belt before he inevitably runs into a fight he has very little chance of winning.
“He’s got good people around him, managing him, putting things together,” Brown said of O’Malley’s selection of Vera as an opponent over Dvalishvili on the latest episode of The Fighter vs. The Writer. “It should have been Merab, but the UFC’s squeezing all the juice they can out of Sean O’Malley before Merab comes in and empties that cup out.
“Merab is the next champion. I don’t think there’s any doubt about it. Probably a longtime champion. I don’t see anybody coming up that can take Merab out. I mean, he just looks fantastic in everything he does. He’s absolutely a f****** train.”
During his current run, Dvailishvili has taken out numerous ranked opponents, including three former bantamweight champions. Following his latest win over Henry Cejudo at UFC 298, UFC CEO Dana White finally declared Dvalishvili as next in line for the title shot.
Assuming the UFC follows through on that promise, Brown says it really doesn’t matter who wins at UFC 299, because that person will inevitably fall to Dvalishvili.
“One-hundred percent [Merab wins],” Brown said. “I don’t there’s any question. He beats both of them in the same night.
“I’ve been saying for a little bit now, especially after the way he just beat Cejudo, there’s a decent chance he’s going to be one of the best of all-time. I think he has a real good chance of being top five all time. There’s nobody beating him for a long time.”
As far as who will actually leave UFC 299 with the title, Brown feels confident that O’Malley will hold onto his belt for at least one more night.
A freak injury ended the first fight between O’Malley and Vera, but it seems unlikely something that that will happen again. At their absolute best, Brown believes O’Malley is just the better fighter, although he still has to be careful with Vera through all five rounds.
“Chito’s just got an uphill battle,” Brown said. “I don’t see where he’s going to be able to pull it out other than it is a five-round fight. It’s a f****** five-round fight and Chito is a god**** dog. I’m 90-10 here on Sean O’Malley. It’s just an uphill battle for Chito. I think it’s a tough fight for him.”
Of course, Vera has pulled off wins in similar circumstances when he was down on the scorecards but then delivered an emphatic finish.
It’s possible he does the same thing to O’Malley, but Brown doesn’t expect that to happen.
“The one thing going for him in this fight is it is five rounds and he’s got good power,” Brown said of Vera. “He finds his shots really well. So basically, Sean just can’t f*** up for five rounds. But I think Sean, he showed it in the first fight, he is the better fighter. He was piecing up Chito pretty good, but to be fair, Chito’s a slow starter. I think you can find ways if you dig deep enough to find a way for Chito to win this fight. If you want him to win, you could justify it.
“I think Sean O’Malley kind of rubs a lot of people the wrong way with his purple hair and streaming weird dork stuff or whatever, which is all fine, but I think people kind of find justified ways for Chito to win because we all love Chito. He’s a great dude and we all love the way he fights. But based on the history, if Sean’s ankle holds up, he probably wins the fight.”
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