Fight Coverage
Coach Conversation | Merab Dvalishvili vs Sean O’Malley 2
New England Cartel Leader Tyson Chartier Dives Into Saturday’s UFC 316 Bantamweight Championship Rematch
Championship fights are layered battles, with the competitors stepping into the Octagon operating at the highest level in their respective weight classes. Breaking down how these pivotal contests could possibly play out is a challenging venture, which is why UFC staff writer E. Spencer Kyte has taken to enlisting the help of some of the sharpest minds in the sport to help dissect these critical contests.
In advance of Saturday’s UFC 316 bantamweight championship rematch between titleholder Merab Dvalishvili and ex-champ “Suga” Sean O’Malley, Kyte called up on Tyson Chartier, head coach of the New England Cartel, to offer up his insights into how this weekend’s main event sequel could shake out.
Best Trait of Each Fighter
Kyte: We’re running it back on Saturday — Dvalishvili vs. O’Malley 2 for the bantamweight title. What’s the best trait of the champ and what’s the best trait of the challenger?
Chartier: At this point, I feel like for Merab I have to say it’s his confidence. It was always his cardio — in terms of a physical trait, it’s his cardio, his conditioning — but now I think he’s on one of the best bantamweight runs of all time.
GET YOUR TICKETS: UFC 316 | UFC Atlanta | UFC Baku | UFC 317 | UFC Nashville
You’ve got Umar (Nurmagomedov), O’Malley, (Henry) Cejudo, (Petr) Yan, (Jose) Aldo, and (Marlon) Moraes; that’s a frickin’ pretty good winning streak. You’ve got WSOF champion, champion in the UFC, champion in the UFC, champion in the UFC, champion in the UFC, and then the guy everybody said was going to be a champion in the UFC; the boogeyman of the division. So I think it’s his confidence.
He seems so strong and mentally tough right now that I don’t think it matters who you put in front of him; he fully believes there is no way he can lose.
And then, with O’Malley, it’s obviously his striking.
Kyte: I agree on both fronts.
With Merab, you see the confidence in that fight with Umar — it’s the full embodiment of “he just knows” and he’s just on a heater because as we talked about going into that one, he was okay giving up the first two rounds as long as it’s competitive and he knows he’s tiring him out. As the fight went on, you saw the confidence going up and up and up to where we get the big flex and bicep smooches.
So when you’ve got a guy carrying that much confidence in their abilities, how big is that when they step into the Octagon?
Chartier: When you’re going in there confident, knowing you can win, you fight so much looser, which plays into his other strength, the cardio.
When you’re out there and you’re not stressed out, you’re confident in what you’re doing, you’re not muscling through things as much, and you’re flowing. In his mind, I don’t think that he thinks he can lose, and that creates a looser fighter, with even better cardio, and it’s a more dangerous fighter to compete against because they’re never red-lining on anything; they’re in your face and not backing down because they don’t think they can lose.
UFC 316 FREE FIGHTS: Pena vs Nunes | Dvalishvili vs Nurmagomdeov | Harrison vs Holm | O'Malley vs Sterling
As a coach, if you can go in there with a fighter that is ultimately confident wherever the fight goes, and knows they have the big trump card in their back pocket with the cardio, it’s very confidence-inducing as a coach.
Full Fight | Merab Dvalishvili vs Sean O'Malley 1
Unlock MORE of your inner combat sports fan with UFC Fight Pass! Fighting is what we live for. And no one brings you MORE live fights, new shows, and events across multiple combat sports from around the world. With a never-ending supply of fighting in every discipline, there’s always something new to watch. Leave it to the world’s authority in MMA to bring you the Ultimate 24/7 platform for MORE combat sports, UFC Fight Pass!
Full Fight | Merab Dvalishvili vs Sean O'Malley 1
/
Kyte: So with O’Malley, it’s obviously his striking that has gotten him to this point, and I always think back to something Sean Madden and I have talked about with really great strikers and what makes them great is their eyes, their vision, their reads; that ability to figure out the right shot, pick the right spot like the knockout of Aljamain Sterling.
We didn’t see that last time out. He seemed super-tentative.
If you’re Tim Welch — or even just tagged in to be in his corner — and we’ve got that previous 25 minutes to draw from, and the striking is clearly his best weapon, how do you prep him for this one to get him using those weapons?
Chartier: I think I said this last time we were talking about these two, and it’s still true: you can’t let Merab lead the dance.
You can’t react to what he’s doing because you’ll be on defense the entire fight. You’re waiting for the perfect time and it’s not gonna come; he’s not gonna give you the perfect window. What happened with Aljo is a possibility in terms of what can happen with guys that fight the way they fight, but more often than naught, you’re not gonna get that perfect shot; it’s not gonna come and you’re not gonna find it.
Order UFC 316: Dvalishvili vs O'Malley 2
So rather than looking for the perfect counter, you have to get in there, get them on defense, hold the center so that now they’re reactively wrestling, rather than proactively wrestling, and you’re leading the dance. You have to get in there and get on offense
Easier said than done — it’s not easy to get a guy like Merab on the back foot. But at the beginning of the first fight, O’Malley was moving a lot, so keep the cage, stay long, and work the body. O’Malley hurt him at the end of the first fight, and I bet that will be part of the plan in this one, so set up those kicks to the body, work the lead jab to the body.
When you work those lead hands to the body, Merab likes to come in with the overhand to a knee-pick or overhand to a double leg, so you’re cutting off that avenue because he has to lower his level. If you’re going to the body, he’s more likely to walk into it. He’s shown he’s susceptible to the body in the past, and I think that can be a way for O’Malley to build some confidence, especially early.
Kyte: So he threw 3.6 significant strikes per minute in their last fight; his average is 6.7. You look at his last two fights, and in the fight against “Chito” Vera, who you can go forward against, he landed 270 significant strikes and dominated the fight; he landed 47 against Merab.
Plain and simple: you’ve gotta go. Easier said than done, like you said, but he has to be more active. His best skill is his striking, and he has to use it.
Chartier: There are two options, right? He can get taken down trying to defend takedowns, or he can get taken down trying to land strikes; what’s going to give you the better chance of winning?
UFC 316 Countdown | Merab Dvalishvili vs Sean O'Malley 2
Unlock MORE of your inner combat sports fan with UFC Fight Pass! Fighting is what we live for. And no one brings you MORE live fights, new shows, and events across multiple combat sports from around the world. With a never-ending supply of fighting in every discipline, there’s always something new to watch. Leave it to the world’s authority in MMA to bring you the Ultimate 24/7 platform for MORE combat sports, UFC Fight Pass!
UFC 316 Countdown | Merab Dvalishvili vs Sean O'Malley 2
/
Path to Victory
Kyte: This one feels pretty straightforward and obvious, but if we can find some nuance here, let’s try and sort it out.
What’s the path to victory for each guy?
Chartier: For Merab, it’s do the same thing he did last time — do Merab things — but for O’Malley, I think you have to get on offense and not worry so much about defense.
Keep it on the feet, but go first, and go first with the proper weapons: jabs to the body, teeps to the body, and use your footwork. He has great footwork, he has good eyes, and you’ve got the big cage, so use your footwork, and when you’re not evading, you have to be going with strikes.
Even if he does shoot a takedown, if you can land two or three jabs before he enters, it’s gonna add up, but if you’re sitting there waiting, that’s a path to victory for Merab.
FOLLOW @UFCNEWS: On Facebook | On Instagram | On X | On Threads
Kyte: I’ll be really interested to see now that he’s spent 25 minutes in there with him and knows that Merab isn’t looking to grind you out on the ground, isn’t even really looking to find a submission or maul you with ground-and-pound, how that changes O’Malley’s approach to defending and working back to his feet
Does it allow him to be a little more aggressive in terms of his own offense and in terms of working back to his feet, risking positions in order to get up and get clear of him? He’s gonna get taken down, but is he a little more active in trying to get up, create space because last time he seemed very resigned at times to being stuck in those wrestling exchanges.
Chartier: You saw he got a little frustrated in the last fight, but when you have those 25 minutes of experience and the fact that he ended it on a positive note, you can parlay that into this fight.
I think there are two ways you can react to that last fight: one is “he’s just gonna lay on me, he doesn’t wanna fight; it’s so frustrating” or you can accept that he’s probably gonna take you down, but “if I have the right reactions, I know I can get up, and I know I can hurt him on the feet.”
You’ve got to keep making him work, not get panicked when you get taken down, just get up, and when you’re in those positions to land, you’ve gotta land, because last time he waited too long.
I’m very interested to see which of those reactions comes this time around.
X Factor
Kyte: Okay — what, if anything, is the X-factor in this fight?
Chartier: I think it’s O’Malley’s mindset coming into this one.
Sean O'Malley Sit Down Interview | UFC 316
Unlock MORE of your inner combat sports fan with UFC Fight Pass! Fighting is what we live for. And no one brings you MORE live fights, new shows, and events across multiple combat sports from around the world. With a never-ending supply of fighting in every discipline, there’s always something new to watch. Leave it to the world’s authority in MMA to bring you the Ultimate 24/7 platform for MORE combat sports, UFC Fight Pass!
Sean O'Malley Sit Down Interview | UFC 316
/
He toned down the social media, and a big one to me is that he stopped smoking weed. I think it does affect you — we don’t know how much because there haven’t been any actual studies done about it yet — but I’ve notice the difference in terms of how present athletes are in camp when they have a clear mind because they’re not smoking.
Order UFC 316: Dvalishvili vs O'Malley 2
They’re there, they’re working, and the clarity they have and the overall attitude is better. Obviously he thought something was going on if he got off it, and with social media, that can be pretty addictive and there is a lot of BS, so I’m interested to see what kind of mindset he comes in with based on the changes he made.
Does he come in with a more peaceful mind, more clarity in camp, a more present athlete? With less distractions? Because that could mean he’s a more dangerous athlete.
Kyte: Yeah, I’m there with you because this is also one where, in theory, if he loses again, we’re into all the questions and talk about “how good was he” and “paper champion” and whatnot, and I wonder how much working to avoid some of that stuff has gone into the decisions you’re talking about?
It feels a little “I want to go out and prove myself” to me. I wonder if after that first one, he really wants to show that he’s not just this technicolor social media guy; he’s the genuine article and still a real factor in the division, now and going forward?
Chartier: He didn’t look worse against Merab than anyone else did!
Kyte: Right — he had more success than lots of people, especially in that last round. And we don’t know how bad that injury was.
We were told he wasn’t able to grapple during the entire camp, so how much does that factor into things?
Chartier: Yeah, sometimes that’s where a good coach will insert those little explanations to steer their fighter towards being more confident next time out. They drop that little Easter egg — “I’m pretty happy how we did given that we couldn’t wrestle last camp. This camp we’re going to be better, we’re going to be able to do everything” — and then the fighter is fired up, buying into it.
Not saying that’s what is happening here, but if it were, that would be smart.
One Coaching Curiosity
Kyte: In terms of a curiosity point, what’s the thing you’re looking to see or the question you want answered?
Chartier: I’m not curious about anything in the fight, but I’m curious to see how O’Malley reacts after the fight.
Merab Dvalishvili Sit Down Interview | UFC 316
Unlock MORE of your inner combat sports fan with UFC Fight Pass! Fighting is what we live for. And no one brings you MORE live fights, new shows, and events across multiple combat sports from around the world. With a never-ending supply of fighting in every discipline, there’s always something new to watch. Leave it to the world’s authority in MMA to bring you the Ultimate 24/7 platform for MORE combat sports, UFC Fight Pass!
Merab Dvalishvili Sit Down Interview | UFC 316
/
Let’s say he goes out and loses again: are there more excuses? New excuses? Does he move up to ’45? Does he take some time off? I’m interested to see if he loses the same way and realizes “I’m not as good as this one guy,” what does that do for him going forward?
The reality is he could lose to Merab, who then loses to the next guy, and O’Malley is right back in the title mix with a win or two, because he is popular and he is good, but does he put himself in a position to do that or does he take a bunch of time off?
Or does he lose his confidence?
Kyte: I wonder how much even that possibility of going down 0-2 to Merab and being stuck in The Franklin Zone impacts him, because people are going to be asking him about it all week.
I want to see what his mindset is, I want to see what his demeanor is like because this is a real big crossroads moment, and I think how he deals with all that will be somewhat instructive. He’s gonna have to answer some tough questions about it this week because if he loses to Merab for a second time in eight, nine months, he’s probably not fighting for the title again as long as he’s on the throne.
He gets stuck in that Rich Franklin with Anderson Silva, Joseph Benavidez with Demetrious Johnson spot where that third shot just isn’t coming, so I want to see if he’s all the usual stuff or dialed in and not playing any of the trash talk games because he’s bent on proving a point?
Chartier: I’m anxious to see how he reacts if it doesn’t go his way. If he wins, we know he’s gonna be right back in there, calling out the next guy — probably (Cory) Sandhagen — but if he loses, what does he do? How does he approach it?
It’s going to be interesting to see.
Kyte: It sure is!
UFC 316: Dvalishvili vs O'Malley 2 took place live from Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey on June 7, 2025. See the final Prelim & Main Card Results, Official Scorecards and Who Won Bonuses - and relive the action on UFC FIGHT PASS!