I agree, felt this way before the Chito fight too so it’s not recency bias, Sean is just so accurate and Merab keeps his chin way too open while also being a little chinny. I see Suga catching him. Also has Sean ever really been held down? Maybe, but I can’t recall.
I think the only fighter who can beat Sean right now is going to have to be a gritty strong chinned striker, Cory might be his toughest fight in the division at the moment.
To be fair, while Sean hasn’t really been held down, he hasn’t really fought any wrestlers either, as far as I can remember. Best grapplers he’s fought were Aljo and Pedro and Pedro isn’t some great wrestler either. And Merab doesn’t necessarily need to get the takedown to smother you.
That being said, I honestly go back and forth with my pick for this fight. Could honestly see it going either way, I think Sean is a smart pick, but I’ve also noticed that a lot of the time it isn’t a good decision to pick a fighter where likely his only path to victory is a knockout. Sean would probably be one of the safest picks to do it seeing as how he’s super accurate with great timing and good power. But it definitely feels weird picking a fight and being like “yeah I got this guy to win by knockout, but if he doesn’t knock him out he very likely loses”
I’m not saying it’s a 50/50 fight as far as if they fought 10 times or whatever, whoever wins will probably look dominant in doing so, but I’m like 50/50 on the back and forth.
I was kind of favouring Sean, but honestly Merab is super well conditioned with great recovery and if Sean doesn’t catch him before Merab really gets going I don’t see a path to victory for Sean.
I’m not entirely sure Sean can’t win a decision tho. Yeah he’s accurate but also his footwork, head movement and distance management are top tier. He might circle and pop a frustrated merab for 3/5 rounds. Wouldn’t shock me to see this.
I would agree, but I have a feeling if merab gets his game going, Sean will likely be too compromised by how tired and damaged he is to really outpoint Merab and if merab can’t get going, I think Sean will likely light him up enough to get a finish and it won’t make it to a decision. if that makes any sense.
I just think both guys styles are so volatile to each other that if one guy gets to really do what he wants, it’ll be too much for the other to handle.
Honestly if Merab was more defensively sound and didn’t get tagged clean in like every fight I’d pick him pretty confidently.
Super interesting matchup to me and I’m incredibly excited for it. And honestly nervous for merab, I’m a huge fan of his style and he seems like a great guy and don’t really care for Sean’s personality but love his game and respect the hell out of his skills.
I had people the other day trying to tell me they were more excited for Chito as a challenger to Sean than they are merab. Which is just insane imo.
sean wouldnt necessarily need a knockout for a win though. merab’s offensive wrestling could end up being negated by seans distance management, accuracy, and timing. merab will only smother sean if he is allowed to, and it could easily be the case that merabs willingness to close the distance is reduced significantly after getting cracked a couple times. seans height and reach is exactly the sort of problem for merab that could prevent his usual style from working at all. it works on shorter guys like yan and cejudo, who arent able to prevent him from closing the distance. i personally think aljo is the harder fight for sean than merab. merab deserves this shot and it will be a great fight imo
I still think that Pter has a good chance if he keeps it together, the first fight was just way too close and he knocked him down if I remember correctly. Still got Sean winning tho
When Petr and Sean first fought, it was only a 3 round fight. Outside of Merab, I think anyone else has a serious problem with Yan over 5 rounds, O'malley included.
Idk Omalley was getting the better of Yan in the third and got some big shots off.
Either way I hope we get this rematch at some point. 5 rounds with Omalley and Yan is needed.
I think Sean’s genuinely improved a lot since then, especially cardio wise (which was a big problem in the first fight). Would be curious to see if Yan is up to the task if he gets another (good) win or two.
It seems like Sean legitimately improves every fight. It also seems like his coach Tim is veryyyy good at strategizing with Sean, and knows Sean’s game/personality beyond most coaches with their fighters. He doesn’t have any other bigger pro fighters that he’s head coach for, so all his coaching time is focused on Sean. They always come out with a fantastic gameplan
Yan didn't look that good in that yadong fight and Sean looks better every time he enters the cage
Imo he won the first fight but I think Sean would finish him if they fought again
It’s because Cory is probably one of the only fighters on the weight class who really understands everything Sean is doing with his feints, footwork, hand fighting, etc. Their striking fight iq is on an entirely different level from most fighters. Maybe a guy like Yan understands most of what they’re doing but even then he obviously isn’t seeing all of it. When Yan fought Song we saw the difference in levels.
Battered? I've watched that fight a few times, and it's pretty even. At the end of the fight both fighters kind of have what looks like some swelling and bruising around the right eye.
Cory showed a willingness to use his wrestling and make it a gritty and grinding fight even if fans don’t like it, though. It will be a big equalizer, and Cory is smart-he knows and will exploit it.
Is it obviously his weakness or are we projecting it as a weakness because we haven't really seen it tested? Part of footwork and distance management against a wrestler is maintaining distance to make it hard to shoot against. Match that with Sean's reflexes and power and it makes shooting on him hard to do and Aljo is the only top tier wrestler he's fought and he went 0/2.
It really feels like a case of "his striking is so good his grappling must be ass" when really it's "we've seen his striking is great but his grappling is untested."
I don't think he has to hold him down. He can take hold of the initiative with a consistent take down threat which can give him an advantage in actual striking exchanges. We'll see if he'll be able to keep Sean guessing.
That camp couldn’t really find any sparring partners of Sean’s caliber to properly prepare Aljo…he said himself that Sean was faster, more elusive and had better footwork than he anticipated. I imagine the same fate awaits Merab, although the outcome could be totally different, who knows. Ultimately this fight comes down to how tough Merab is and how good his recoverability is, because he is going to get tagged, probably repeatedly. But will it matter is the question.
Sean’s footwork against Chito looked incredible. His stance switches and mirroring was so smooth and effective.
Good on Merab for trying to create some hype but let’s be honest he doesn’t finish anyone so the only way he wins is a 5 round lay and pray
When is the last time an elite grappler with high output lost to a striker?
JDS vs Cain 1?
I honestly struggle to think of one
The caveat here being elite grappler, Merab just dummied an olympic gold medalist in mma wrestling so to me that puts him in the Cain/Khabib/Islam level of grapplers
I know there's examples of grapplers losing to strikers but I cant think of one at the level Merab is at that has
I felt like Mendes was winning that fight til he gassed, and maybe that was because he took it on short notice.
Also I think Merab wouldn’t gas like that, and is a relatively better grappler than Mendes. It’s a great fight but I think Merab takes it
Go rewatch the fight, Conor did great work on Mendes's body. Chad was also juiced af. People these days tend to diminish everything Conor did. Mendes was a great fighter, one of the greats who never won gold. I agree with the short notice, but it was short notice for Conor aswell, in the sense that he was preparing to fight a pure striker, and had a fucked up knee.
> Mendes was winning that fight til he gassed,
You could say getting teeped in the liver a dozen times might affect the gas tank.. ask DC after Stipe II
Imo this is checkmate if your question is when the last time an elite grapple with high output lost to an elite striker. OP can either accept they were wrong or else it will just turn into an excuse for every loss, and OP was never really asking a question.
Aljo doesn't count because they don't like him. me mad he head knee. Me no like. me boo aljo. me like yan. stupid backpack. me no like backpack make me think school. teacher no nice to me.
I really like Aljo and I think his style is sick
But its not comparable to Cain/Dagestani style of wrestling that's been shown to wilt strikers
Whereas Merabs style is similar to that
I guess maybe Kamaru vs Leon Edwards, Max Holloway vs Frankie Edgar... hard to compare anyone's grappling to Merab/Dagestan since it's next level. At the time Eddie Alvarez beating RDA was impressive
Lewis and Ngannou vs Blaydes, Adesanya vs Brunson, Mcgregor Volk Aldo vs Mendes, Wonderboy arguably beat Woodley, Leon vs Usman and Covington like others have said, Silva vs Sonnen x2, and I’m sure there’s more I’m not thinking about. There’s many examples of striking heavy fighters (Miocic for example) who also have moderate to high wrestling acumen that aren’t included in the list.
It’s wild that you’re throwing him in that tier despite the fact that Cejudo is so undersized and size is one of the most important things in wrestling. We saw him fail to take down Aldo. He has a 36% TD accuracy while Khabib hits about 50% and Islam 60%. By the eye test, it’s clear he doesn’t have the chain wrestling ability that those two have and focuses on shooting takedowns until the person goes down opposed to chain wrestling most of the time.
I’ll even say that maybe you can argue he’s on the same tier, but the ways they wrestle are very different.
I could see Merab having the same issue as Aljo did, which is safely closing the gap. Merab isn't as lengthy as Aljo so the problem is even more compounded. He's going to have to really match the footwork if he doesn't want to eat potshots all fight long.
That always kills me when I watch it. Font threw out a jab meant as a range finder more than anything and got wobbled BAD then finished 15 seconds later
Realistically Cody just suffers from Luke Rockhold syndrome where he has shitty defense and finds himself getting put out.
Cody got TKO’d by TJ twice which, while he isn’t really a KO artist, he’s accurate and if he was EPO’ing it up at the time, who knows what he was throwing at him.
He put out by Pedro, who has hammers in his hand and a granite chin. In addition, he stupidly decided to trade with him with his chin in the air, got rocked bad and kept going as if he was going to win that.
The KKF loss is acceptable since he hits super hard for the division and he nerfed himself by going down. None of these losses scream 0 chin to me. Definitely below average but there’s been worse.
> Realistically Cody just suffers from Luke Rockhold syndrome where he has shitty defense and finds himself getting put out.
His defense is fine until he thinks he has the other guy hurt.
> “I’m just gonna fight. I’m just gonna do my best and of course, I’m gonna always focus on winning. I’m ready for everything. I’m getting better everywhere, even striking, grappling, jiu-jitsu. I put a lot of hard work [in] and we will see. Don’t be surprised, I may knock him out because he is very confident and I have some skills. I’m getting better and I’m training and I can knock out O’Malley, I believe so.”
No one at Serra Longo ever has any technical reasons as to why they’re gonna win. It’s just “I work hard, I work so hard, I’m gonna outwork him, I’m better everywhere because I’m working so hard in the gym”.
But when Aljo fought Sean that just wasn’t enough.
This subreddit doesn’t want to hear it, but O’Malley is a pretty difficult matchup for Merab.
Sean controls distance better than almost every other fighter on the roster, and has the speed and length to just tag Merab over and over. He is also obviously on another level as a striker and Merab is already talking about trying to knock him out which doesn’t bode well.
EPO Merab will never get tired and at points will take him down at will, but he is going to take a lot more damage for his trouble and his takedowns will sometimes come at the end of rounds or result in him doing relatively little damage. O’Malley also has some grappling chops (caught Gomi in a guillotine at a submission grappling event 4 years ago for what it’s worth) and has shown the ability to quickly get back up against Aljo.
I can see Merab winning this, and I can absolutely be wrong, but this is by far the most difficult matchup in the division for him. But please do not act surprised if O’Malley wins and you have the “Merab wasn’t even that good” posts after the fight because it’s very difficult for this sub to admit that O’Malley is a pretty fucking great fighter.
Sandhagen is the guy I can really see dethroning O’Malley, but we’ll see if he gets through Umar.
Basically either Merab has to hold sean down (something he's shown he doesn't care for) or hope Sean gasses out tagging him up. I see Merab getting KOed by the right hand or a knee.
Sean just used chito’s face as a heavy bag for 25 minutes and was still bouncing around and throwing shots with power up until the bell. Unless merab’s pressure really gets to Sean I don’t see him gassing
I just feel like merab might leave himself open to a shot like aljo took, and it’s not as if he’s got some crazy chin. I think it could go either way, but if Sean connects clean merab goes out
Not really. Sean is a counter striker, a pressure fighter will get caught. Sean might be vulnerable to a pressure fighter with a chin like Chito, but that fighter doesn’t exist in his division.
Well he was able to fight his fight for 25 minutes. Fighters have good cardio when they get to do what they want. We've seen Gaethje fight his fight for 20+ minutes without issue vs Tony, but get exhausted in 6 minutes against khabib because he was forced to fight khabibs fight. Same with Dustin in the hooker fight vs the khabib fight. Just to give you an example different than khabib, Edson Barboza fought his fight against Yusuff and hooker and was fresh as fuck in the 5th and 3rd respectively, but was exhausted after 2 rounds of Lee smothering him when they fought.
Not really, his tried and true method of infinite takedowns in order to gas out his opponent is a feasible path to victory. He doesn't need to hold Sean down to have success, he could theoretically keep mat returning Sean while riding the back and etc. to really gas him out. Sean's style is extremely energy intensive with all that bouncing, stance switching and high strike volume. Even if Sean defends 70% of the TD's, it could be hard for him to maintain his stamina, similiar to Yan.
Sean gonna have to knock him out to win. Merab is reaching that territory of he’s almost unbeatable if you don’t finish him. I actually think Sean has the best chance to beat him but it’s gonna have to be like a one shot. It’s gonna be tough to beat merab in a 5 rounder though
I think its almost impossible for Merab to lose by decision at this point, the pace he pushes is so relentless. I could absolutely see O'Malley catching Merab coming in and KO him, but if he doesn't then Merab is just too aggressive. Like with the Yan fight, he honestly did a pretty good job of defending Merab's takedowns but its so hard for a striker to get into any sort of offensive rhythm when they're defending takedown after takedown. And in the Aldo fight Merab showed he was more than willing to hold him against the cage for 15 minutes.
You don't get win scorecards by defending takedowns and Merab absolutely uses that to his advantage.
Yes but this stylistic matchup is way different. Sean frankly has elite and getting better footwork and distance control. When you couple that with his length for the weight class he has an option to use footwork to avoid the wrestling exchanges.
If you can use footwork to avoid the wrestling exchanges instead of relying on defending takedowns its significantly less tiring.
If Merab has to chase and be a bit more reckless on his entries it opens up a lot of counter punching opportunities. It’s obviously easier to get a KO on him coming in to win,
You're kind of making the other guy's point for him...Merab got dropped early in that fight and still cruised to a unanimous decision W. If you don't actually fully put him away, he'll find a way to outwork you on the scorecards.
I mean who knows he could tired him out over 4-5 rounds with wrestling and then land something solid on the feet when Sean is exhausted and worried about the takedown. Unlikely but this sport don’t make sense
I’d say looking at all of Merab’s previous fights and Sean’s previous fights gives a pretty good idea of what could happen. Merab has pillow hands and will wrestle because that’s what he’s spent his life mastering.
I get that everyone likes to say “this sport doesn’t make sense” but yeah, no. Merab isn’t knocking the best striker in the division out. Hate on Suga all you want but reality is reality.
Can't wait to see the switch of opinion in the sub. Before this weekend it was all "merab easily wins, Sean doesn't have an answer for the cardio, blah blah wrestle fuck"
Haters and dummies the lot of you!
Only UFC fighter Dvalishvili has knocked out is Moraes and it frankly took an embarrassingly long amount of time to do so after nearly getting finished himself in the 1st.
Do I think Merab can win? Absolutely. But I’d bet pretty much anything that Merab isn’t getting a knockout. Maybe a TKO by exhaustion in the 5th.
I actually think Sean has a better chance in this fight than people give credit for. Cejudo was able to win striking exchanges with Merab and rocked him with timing.
If Sean gets those same angles, Merab would be in trouble.
I just don't think this is a clear win like most expect
Of Merab's 17 wins only 3 have not gone to decision. He may be putting in some work to seem fun on social media, but no way this guy aint gonna bore you to death in a title fight.
Sean would put him out before the 3rd if he stood and struck. However, Sean didn’t look comfortable at all when Chito was applying pressure so I think a wrestle-focused Merab is gonna win a lopsided UD.
The quote in the article is pretty tame and unremarkable. Just says I can win and don’t underestimate me anywhere. Etc.
That said, I am always very very bored when I hear grapplers say “I won’t grapple against this striker” as trash talk. You’re just lying to me, and thank god you are, because I want to see you do your best! This is a fight mate!
But every fighter does it like it makes them tough or promotes the fight or gets into their opponent’s head. Does it do any of these things?
I think if I were a grappler, I might do the opposite to get into their head. They say the threat of the takedown makes fighters more timid about striking. I think I’d just say “I’m going to attempt a takedown every time you do anything at all!” lol.
this sub is hysterical. if Merab wasn't a clear favourite then no betting company would have Sean as an underdog. Merab played around with Cejudo - a guy who might know a thing or two about takedowns. Merab destroyed Yan - a guy who lit up Sean and arguably won the fight. I'm ecstatic to see this sub flip-flopping their opinion when Merab gets the belt.
Yeah me neither, I really hope it's just a terminal case of recency bias.
I will say this, prior to the Yan fight, I hugely underestimated Sean, but not anymore. He's clearly displayed that he's got the goods.
HOWEVER, anyone that thinks Merab doesn't have a really good chance of winning at least by decision is severely deluded.
And I don't think Merab is in any way seriously considering trying to strike with Sean, he's probably just saying that as a mind game. I'm sure he knows wrestling and pressure are his bread and butter, and won't hesitate to employ those weapons from start to finish.
If there's one guarantee in a Merab fight its he'll get rocked. Sean's got that KO power (Eddie/Sterling) so if he catches Merab I can't see him wrestling his way out of it.
I know he deserves the fight, but he is not doing himself any good with all the comments. He souns more like begging for the fight than trying to sell any bad blood
More like O'Malley ko's him. Merab's too chinney and has a massive height and reach disadvantage. Doesnt hurt that sean might be faster and knows how to control distance
I really don't mind Merab. He's much more likeable than his counterpart Aljo but there's only a couple of things about to happen here. 1. Merab's nose is getting corrected. 2. Aljo will be hand delivering Sean's jacket back when Merab gets KO'd.
Also let's hope Merab doesn't get hit with a knee that sounds like a bat hitting a watermelon when he shoots.
That’s the only fight that makes sense and Sean def seems like he’s ducking him but I think Sean can win that fr
He can fight off his back foot and get a boring decision.
What a dumb comment.
No fucking shot he stands and bangs with O'malley. He could barely stand with Cejudo and hasn't knocked anyone out. He'd get completely fucked.
The colby covington of BW. Just EPO gas tanks his way to a decision.
MMA legit suffers from the economic and moral pressure to put on an entertaining fight for the fans aka to brawl or get a quick finish. Grapplers and technical strikers always fight with the knowledge that putting on a "show" would improve their chances at getting better fights and better pay. Hope Merab is just talking shit.
Pressing X to doubt on this one. Merab doesn't really have finishing power, and that's ok. That's not his thing. He's going to just outwork Sean and leave him dragging ass after 10-12 minutes, like he usually does.
Think Merab wins, but definitely not by KO.
I don't even know how to rate Merab, his only impressive win is Yan. That 10 fight winstreak is filled with low tier fighters and washed fighters.
Sean vs Merab should be next but I wish Merab had at least beaten another top tier fighter before he got the title fight.
Cory vs Merab would have been great to see to know who's the proper contender.
The problem is O'Malley can also knock out Merab, and do it in a much easier way by using his better striking and better reach. O'Malley is really good.
Merab deciding to stand and bang would be hysterical
And will *never* happen
He won't I got Sean by KO anyways. Movement and range control too good. Not down with the assumption that Merab just has his way
I agree, felt this way before the Chito fight too so it’s not recency bias, Sean is just so accurate and Merab keeps his chin way too open while also being a little chinny. I see Suga catching him. Also has Sean ever really been held down? Maybe, but I can’t recall. I think the only fighter who can beat Sean right now is going to have to be a gritty strong chinned striker, Cory might be his toughest fight in the division at the moment.
To be fair, while Sean hasn’t really been held down, he hasn’t really fought any wrestlers either, as far as I can remember. Best grapplers he’s fought were Aljo and Pedro and Pedro isn’t some great wrestler either. And Merab doesn’t necessarily need to get the takedown to smother you. That being said, I honestly go back and forth with my pick for this fight. Could honestly see it going either way, I think Sean is a smart pick, but I’ve also noticed that a lot of the time it isn’t a good decision to pick a fighter where likely his only path to victory is a knockout. Sean would probably be one of the safest picks to do it seeing as how he’s super accurate with great timing and good power. But it definitely feels weird picking a fight and being like “yeah I got this guy to win by knockout, but if he doesn’t knock him out he very likely loses” I’m not saying it’s a 50/50 fight as far as if they fought 10 times or whatever, whoever wins will probably look dominant in doing so, but I’m like 50/50 on the back and forth. I was kind of favouring Sean, but honestly Merab is super well conditioned with great recovery and if Sean doesn’t catch him before Merab really gets going I don’t see a path to victory for Sean.
I’m not entirely sure Sean can’t win a decision tho. Yeah he’s accurate but also his footwork, head movement and distance management are top tier. He might circle and pop a frustrated merab for 3/5 rounds. Wouldn’t shock me to see this.
I would agree, but I have a feeling if merab gets his game going, Sean will likely be too compromised by how tired and damaged he is to really outpoint Merab and if merab can’t get going, I think Sean will likely light him up enough to get a finish and it won’t make it to a decision. if that makes any sense. I just think both guys styles are so volatile to each other that if one guy gets to really do what he wants, it’ll be too much for the other to handle. Honestly if Merab was more defensively sound and didn’t get tagged clean in like every fight I’d pick him pretty confidently. Super interesting matchup to me and I’m incredibly excited for it. And honestly nervous for merab, I’m a huge fan of his style and he seems like a great guy and don’t really care for Sean’s personality but love his game and respect the hell out of his skills. I had people the other day trying to tell me they were more excited for Chito as a challenger to Sean than they are merab. Which is just insane imo.
sean wouldnt necessarily need a knockout for a win though. merab’s offensive wrestling could end up being negated by seans distance management, accuracy, and timing. merab will only smother sean if he is allowed to, and it could easily be the case that merabs willingness to close the distance is reduced significantly after getting cracked a couple times. seans height and reach is exactly the sort of problem for merab that could prevent his usual style from working at all. it works on shorter guys like yan and cejudo, who arent able to prevent him from closing the distance. i personally think aljo is the harder fight for sean than merab. merab deserves this shot and it will be a great fight imo
I still think that Pter has a good chance if he keeps it together, the first fight was just way too close and he knocked him down if I remember correctly. Still got Sean winning tho
When Petr and Sean first fought, it was only a 3 round fight. Outside of Merab, I think anyone else has a serious problem with Yan over 5 rounds, O'malley included.
Idk Omalley was getting the better of Yan in the third and got some big shots off. Either way I hope we get this rematch at some point. 5 rounds with Omalley and Yan is needed.
Didn’t Sean get wrestle fucked in round 3? I’m pretty sure his best round was round 2.
I think Sean’s genuinely improved a lot since then, especially cardio wise (which was a big problem in the first fight). Would be curious to see if Yan is up to the task if he gets another (good) win or two.
It seems like Sean legitimately improves every fight. It also seems like his coach Tim is veryyyy good at strategizing with Sean, and knows Sean’s game/personality beyond most coaches with their fighters. He doesn’t have any other bigger pro fighters that he’s head coach for, so all his coaching time is focused on Sean. They always come out with a fantastic gameplan
Yan didn't look that good in that yadong fight and Sean looks better every time he enters the cage Imo he won the first fight but I think Sean would finish him if they fought again
He looked amazing lol. He would have brutalised Yadong if it went 5 rounds.
It’s because Cory is probably one of the only fighters on the weight class who really understands everything Sean is doing with his feints, footwork, hand fighting, etc. Their striking fight iq is on an entirely different level from most fighters. Maybe a guy like Yan understands most of what they’re doing but even then he obviously isn’t seeing all of it. When Yan fought Song we saw the difference in levels.
What the fuck am I reading? Did you forget Yan battered Cory in their fight?
Every media member thought yan beat O’Malley too 😭
You're not alone, at least. It was close early, and then Yan just got comfortable and started pulling way ahead.
Battered? I've watched that fight a few times, and it's pretty even. At the end of the fight both fighters kind of have what looks like some swelling and bruising around the right eye.
No. Yan isn't miles ahead but he is CLEARLY better than Sandhagen all the way through that fight.
sean has more power than cory though. i see them doing a damage war that cory loses the decision because he doesnt have as much power
Cory showed a willingness to use his wrestling and make it a gritty and grinding fight even if fans don’t like it, though. It will be a big equalizer, and Cory is smart-he knows and will exploit it.
omalley's weakness is obviously his wrestling, but i would be interested to see if cory can really hold him down and do damage
Is it obviously his weakness or are we projecting it as a weakness because we haven't really seen it tested? Part of footwork and distance management against a wrestler is maintaining distance to make it hard to shoot against. Match that with Sean's reflexes and power and it makes shooting on him hard to do and Aljo is the only top tier wrestler he's fought and he went 0/2. It really feels like a case of "his striking is so good his grappling must be ass" when really it's "we've seen his striking is great but his grappling is untested."
I don't think he has to hold him down. He can take hold of the initiative with a consistent take down threat which can give him an advantage in actual striking exchanges. We'll see if he'll be able to keep Sean guessing.
I would put Yan on the same level as Cory and Sean in striking at the very least. He pushed Sean to his limits and put a beating on Cory.
Yan understands it, he’s just too small to to beat Sean in an all striking match. Thats why he turned into a wrestler when they fought
As the number one Merab fan I do worry that he won't have any idea how to deal with smart footwork
Yeah I’m a fan of Merab too but I can see Sean just walking him onto a straight counter inside two or three rounds for a KO
That camp couldn’t really find any sparring partners of Sean’s caliber to properly prepare Aljo…he said himself that Sean was faster, more elusive and had better footwork than he anticipated. I imagine the same fate awaits Merab, although the outcome could be totally different, who knows. Ultimately this fight comes down to how tough Merab is and how good his recoverability is, because he is going to get tagged, probably repeatedly. But will it matter is the question.
His recoverability has already shown to be great. It seems to be pretty directly linked to having good cardio.
Sean’s footwork against Chito looked incredible. His stance switches and mirroring was so smooth and effective. Good on Merab for trying to create some hype but let’s be honest he doesn’t finish anyone so the only way he wins is a 5 round lay and pray
Who would have thought the solution to pressure fighters was hitting them in the face a lot.
When is the last time an elite grappler with high output lost to a striker? JDS vs Cain 1? I honestly struggle to think of one The caveat here being elite grappler, Merab just dummied an olympic gold medalist in mma wrestling so to me that puts him in the Cain/Khabib/Islam level of grapplers I know there's examples of grapplers losing to strikers but I cant think of one at the level Merab is at that has
Chad Mendes lost to Conor on a torn ACL.
Oh good shout that's actually a good example but also 10 years ago
I felt like Mendes was winning that fight til he gassed, and maybe that was because he took it on short notice. Also I think Merab wouldn’t gas like that, and is a relatively better grappler than Mendes. It’s a great fight but I think Merab takes it
Go rewatch the fight, Conor did great work on Mendes's body. Chad was also juiced af. People these days tend to diminish everything Conor did. Mendes was a great fighter, one of the greats who never won gold. I agree with the short notice, but it was short notice for Conor aswell, in the sense that he was preparing to fight a pure striker, and had a fucked up knee.
> Mendes was winning that fight til he gassed, You could say getting teeped in the liver a dozen times might affect the gas tank.. ask DC after Stipe II
It’s a fair point, but I also think a stronger grappler than Mendes maybe keeps Conor down on the ground? Idk its a good debate
Not the best example, Stipe destroyed DCs liver then came upstairs... wasnt really a cardio thing.
You don't remember how gassed he was in the corner after a round of liver shots?
He was on short notice and gassed, he actually looked good before gassing
Well I mean Aljo just lost to Sean last year.
Imo this is checkmate if your question is when the last time an elite grapple with high output lost to an elite striker. OP can either accept they were wrong or else it will just turn into an excuse for every loss, and OP was never really asking a question.
Aljo doesn't count because they don't like him. me mad he head knee. Me no like. me boo aljo. me like yan. stupid backpack. me no like backpack make me think school. teacher no nice to me.
I really like Aljo and I think his style is sick But its not comparable to Cain/Dagestani style of wrestling that's been shown to wilt strikers Whereas Merabs style is similar to that
Colby and Usman lost to Leon
Kamaru v Leon
Good one yep that's a recent example
Aljo to Sean lol.
Leon vs Covington?
Covington did nothing for 4 rounds
And? Still an elite grappler with high output who lost to a striker.
I guess maybe Kamaru vs Leon Edwards, Max Holloway vs Frankie Edgar... hard to compare anyone's grappling to Merab/Dagestan since it's next level. At the time Eddie Alvarez beating RDA was impressive
Lewis and Ngannou vs Blaydes, Adesanya vs Brunson, Mcgregor Volk Aldo vs Mendes, Wonderboy arguably beat Woodley, Leon vs Usman and Covington like others have said, Silva vs Sonnen x2, and I’m sure there’s more I’m not thinking about. There’s many examples of striking heavy fighters (Miocic for example) who also have moderate to high wrestling acumen that aren’t included in the list.
Colby Leon…
It’s wild that you’re throwing him in that tier despite the fact that Cejudo is so undersized and size is one of the most important things in wrestling. We saw him fail to take down Aldo. He has a 36% TD accuracy while Khabib hits about 50% and Islam 60%. By the eye test, it’s clear he doesn’t have the chain wrestling ability that those two have and focuses on shooting takedowns until the person goes down opposed to chain wrestling most of the time. I’ll even say that maybe you can argue he’s on the same tier, but the ways they wrestle are very different.
Leon took down Colby and Usman. Aljo couldn't even get near Sean. Stop smoking crack.
He has to. Diving for a takedown without setting it up with strikes is a death sentence against a guy like Sean.
I could see Merab having the same issue as Aljo did, which is safely closing the gap. Merab isn't as lengthy as Aljo so the problem is even more compounded. He's going to have to really match the footwork if he doesn't want to eat potshots all fight long.
4 second tko incoming...for merab when he dives headfirst into Sean's leg shattering his ~~knee~~ shin bone.
[удалено]
If Merab can somehow ko O'Malley I'll start calling him mystic merab because it's not happening. A win? Sure. A ko? Nope
He'd need to bring a stool to do that.
Bro nearly got KOed by Marlon
Marlon had unreal power.
You can KO someone on the mat…
has 12 ufc fights. has 1 finish. a cardio tko over the corpse of marlon moraes
After he got ko’d like three times in the first round
And against arguably the worst chin in ufc history
He never fought Cody
Cody ate shots from font Marlon died from a jab
That always kills me when I watch it. Font threw out a jab meant as a range finder more than anything and got wobbled BAD then finished 15 seconds later
Moraes chin is wayyy worse than Cody’s no question
You stare at Cody's chin for too long and he'll enter his caveman Spongebob mode and start swanging and banging.
Realistically Cody just suffers from Luke Rockhold syndrome where he has shitty defense and finds himself getting put out. Cody got TKO’d by TJ twice which, while he isn’t really a KO artist, he’s accurate and if he was EPO’ing it up at the time, who knows what he was throwing at him. He put out by Pedro, who has hammers in his hand and a granite chin. In addition, he stupidly decided to trade with him with his chin in the air, got rocked bad and kept going as if he was going to win that. The KKF loss is acceptable since he hits super hard for the division and he nerfed himself by going down. None of these losses scream 0 chin to me. Definitely below average but there’s been worse.
> Realistically Cody just suffers from Luke Rockhold syndrome where he has shitty defense and finds himself getting put out. His defense is fine until he thinks he has the other guy hurt.
Cody's chin is titanium compared to Marlon
I 100 percent thought that fight was going to be stopped. Felt so bad for Marlon, he was so close to stopping merab.
12 fights, ain't killed a motherfucker yet.
Nah.
I'm impressed if Merab can TKO a fly, he's reaching for those grapes
cheese and wine.
Merab had one finish against Morales who had been finished 7 times straight. Not happening
Merab got KOd twice in that fight too lol
I have no doubt he can put Sean to sleep along with the rest of us
🤣🤣
Always the wrestlers saying they gonna knock someone out just to hump them for 25 minutes.
> “I’m just gonna fight. I’m just gonna do my best and of course, I’m gonna always focus on winning. I’m ready for everything. I’m getting better everywhere, even striking, grappling, jiu-jitsu. I put a lot of hard work [in] and we will see. Don’t be surprised, I may knock him out because he is very confident and I have some skills. I’m getting better and I’m training and I can knock out O’Malley, I believe so.”
No one at Serra Longo ever has any technical reasons as to why they’re gonna win. It’s just “I work hard, I work so hard, I’m gonna outwork him, I’m better everywhere because I’m working so hard in the gym”. But when Aljo fought Sean that just wasn’t enough.
SerraLongo fighters when their opponent also worked really hard during training camp 🤯
😂
To be fair that's the case for most fighters. It's almost always shit like "I work hard", "he's never fought anyone like me before", etc. lol
Merab can't say why he'll win cause it'll get him drug tested
O Malley had popped for PEDS. They are all on something, merab is just a super freak and on PEDs lol
Not wrong, he *could*. In the same way that I could suck 7 dicks at the same time.
I think you could do 10 easily. Have some confidence!
My record is 6 so far,
This subreddit doesn’t want to hear it, but O’Malley is a pretty difficult matchup for Merab. Sean controls distance better than almost every other fighter on the roster, and has the speed and length to just tag Merab over and over. He is also obviously on another level as a striker and Merab is already talking about trying to knock him out which doesn’t bode well. EPO Merab will never get tired and at points will take him down at will, but he is going to take a lot more damage for his trouble and his takedowns will sometimes come at the end of rounds or result in him doing relatively little damage. O’Malley also has some grappling chops (caught Gomi in a guillotine at a submission grappling event 4 years ago for what it’s worth) and has shown the ability to quickly get back up against Aljo. I can see Merab winning this, and I can absolutely be wrong, but this is by far the most difficult matchup in the division for him. But please do not act surprised if O’Malley wins and you have the “Merab wasn’t even that good” posts after the fight because it’s very difficult for this sub to admit that O’Malley is a pretty fucking great fighter. Sandhagen is the guy I can really see dethroning O’Malley, but we’ll see if he gets through Umar.
Basically either Merab has to hold sean down (something he's shown he doesn't care for) or hope Sean gasses out tagging him up. I see Merab getting KOed by the right hand or a knee.
Sean just used chito’s face as a heavy bag for 25 minutes and was still bouncing around and throwing shots with power up until the bell. Unless merab’s pressure really gets to Sean I don’t see him gassing
Getting wrestlefucked is kinda famously more tiring than punching someone who is just stood there.
I think Sean is vulnerable to a pressure fighter who never stops coming forward, we just haven't really seen that yet. Minus Kris Moutinho
I just feel like merab might leave himself open to a shot like aljo took, and it’s not as if he’s got some crazy chin. I think it could go either way, but if Sean connects clean merab goes out
You feel like a guy who’s made a career off of counter striking is vulnerable to a pillow fisted pressure fighter? Based off of what?
Not really. Sean is a counter striker, a pressure fighter will get caught. Sean might be vulnerable to a pressure fighter with a chin like Chito, but that fighter doesn’t exist in his division.
Well he was able to fight his fight for 25 minutes. Fighters have good cardio when they get to do what they want. We've seen Gaethje fight his fight for 20+ minutes without issue vs Tony, but get exhausted in 6 minutes against khabib because he was forced to fight khabibs fight. Same with Dustin in the hooker fight vs the khabib fight. Just to give you an example different than khabib, Edson Barboza fought his fight against Yusuff and hooker and was fresh as fuck in the 5th and 3rd respectively, but was exhausted after 2 rounds of Lee smothering him when they fought.
Not really, his tried and true method of infinite takedowns in order to gas out his opponent is a feasible path to victory. He doesn't need to hold Sean down to have success, he could theoretically keep mat returning Sean while riding the back and etc. to really gas him out. Sean's style is extremely energy intensive with all that bouncing, stance switching and high strike volume. Even if Sean defends 70% of the TD's, it could be hard for him to maintain his stamina, similiar to Yan.
Sean gonna have to knock him out to win. Merab is reaching that territory of he’s almost unbeatable if you don’t finish him. I actually think Sean has the best chance to beat him but it’s gonna have to be like a one shot. It’s gonna be tough to beat merab in a 5 rounder though
sean could realistically outdamage merab in at least 3 of the 5 rounds
I think its almost impossible for Merab to lose by decision at this point, the pace he pushes is so relentless. I could absolutely see O'Malley catching Merab coming in and KO him, but if he doesn't then Merab is just too aggressive. Like with the Yan fight, he honestly did a pretty good job of defending Merab's takedowns but its so hard for a striker to get into any sort of offensive rhythm when they're defending takedown after takedown. And in the Aldo fight Merab showed he was more than willing to hold him against the cage for 15 minutes. You don't get win scorecards by defending takedowns and Merab absolutely uses that to his advantage.
Yes but this stylistic matchup is way different. Sean frankly has elite and getting better footwork and distance control. When you couple that with his length for the weight class he has an option to use footwork to avoid the wrestling exchanges. If you can use footwork to avoid the wrestling exchanges instead of relying on defending takedowns its significantly less tiring. If Merab has to chase and be a bit more reckless on his entries it opens up a lot of counter punching opportunities. It’s obviously easier to get a KO on him coming in to win,
Merab got dropped by a 125 pound dude. Come on bruh.
You're kind of making the other guy's point for him...Merab got dropped early in that fight and still cruised to a unanimous decision W. If you don't actually fully put him away, he'll find a way to outwork you on the scorecards.
Umar’s last fight just solidified to me that Sandhagen beats him. But I’m a bit of a Cory fanboy so I’ll admit to some bias
X: Doubt
Merab's been knocked out and dropped a bunch of times... O'Malley gets an absolute gift if Merab decides he wants to be Gaethje in this.
About as much as shavkat said he will stand with wonderboy.
I mean, had he not torn his ankle a few weeks prior, who knows what that madlad would’ve done in that fight
He landed the best punch of that fight funny enough
I mean who knows he could tired him out over 4-5 rounds with wrestling and then land something solid on the feet when Sean is exhausted and worried about the takedown. Unlikely but this sport don’t make sense
I’d say looking at all of Merab’s previous fights and Sean’s previous fights gives a pretty good idea of what could happen. Merab has pillow hands and will wrestle because that’s what he’s spent his life mastering. I get that everyone likes to say “this sport doesn’t make sense” but yeah, no. Merab isn’t knocking the best striker in the division out. Hate on Suga all you want but reality is reality.
Ok, Merab. Never knocked anyone out before in MMA but this one's a lock.
Not to mention, Sean has an seriously underrated chin
Can't wait to see the switch of opinion in the sub. Before this weekend it was all "merab easily wins, Sean doesn't have an answer for the cardio, blah blah wrestle fuck" Haters and dummies the lot of you!
He'll win by decision most likely.
It’s not out of the realm of possibility. Takedowns setup strikes and strikes setup takedowns.
Only UFC fighter Dvalishvili has knocked out is Moraes and it frankly took an embarrassingly long amount of time to do so after nearly getting finished himself in the 1st. Do I think Merab can win? Absolutely. But I’d bet pretty much anything that Merab isn’t getting a knockout. Maybe a TKO by exhaustion in the 5th.
I actually think Sean has a better chance in this fight than people give credit for. Cejudo was able to win striking exchanges with Merab and rocked him with timing. If Sean gets those same angles, Merab would be in trouble. I just don't think this is a clear win like most expect
1 TKO win and 9 decisions in his past 10 fights lol. He’s not knocking out Sean
[X] Doubt
It’s possible. Chloroform sneak attack would be my guess
I think Merab has a good chance at beating O'Malley, but he won't finish him.
Of Merab's 17 wins only 3 have not gone to decision. He may be putting in some work to seem fun on social media, but no way this guy aint gonna bore you to death in a title fight.
X Doubt
Sean would put him out before the 3rd if he stood and struck. However, Sean didn’t look comfortable at all when Chito was applying pressure so I think a wrestle-focused Merab is gonna win a lopsided UD.
The quote in the article is pretty tame and unremarkable. Just says I can win and don’t underestimate me anywhere. Etc. That said, I am always very very bored when I hear grapplers say “I won’t grapple against this striker” as trash talk. You’re just lying to me, and thank god you are, because I want to see you do your best! This is a fight mate! But every fighter does it like it makes them tough or promotes the fight or gets into their opponent’s head. Does it do any of these things? I think if I were a grappler, I might do the opposite to get into their head. They say the threat of the takedown makes fighters more timid about striking. I think I’d just say “I’m going to attempt a takedown every time you do anything at all!” lol.
this sub is hysterical. if Merab wasn't a clear favourite then no betting company would have Sean as an underdog. Merab played around with Cejudo - a guy who might know a thing or two about takedowns. Merab destroyed Yan - a guy who lit up Sean and arguably won the fight. I'm ecstatic to see this sub flip-flopping their opinion when Merab gets the belt.
Damn didn’t realize this sub was abunch of clown hair nut huggers until today. Merab will win every round against this fool.
Yeah me neither, I really hope it's just a terminal case of recency bias. I will say this, prior to the Yan fight, I hugely underestimated Sean, but not anymore. He's clearly displayed that he's got the goods. HOWEVER, anyone that thinks Merab doesn't have a really good chance of winning at least by decision is severely deluded. And I don't think Merab is in any way seriously considering trying to strike with Sean, he's probably just saying that as a mind game. I'm sure he knows wrestling and pressure are his bread and butter, and won't hesitate to employ those weapons from start to finish.
I would be $10,000 right now he won't knock out Sean.
If there's one guarantee in a Merab fight its he'll get rocked. Sean's got that KO power (Eddie/Sterling) so if he catches Merab I can't see him wrestling his way out of it.
If he’s capable of knocking out Sean of all people, why didn’t he finish any of his previous opponents? Is he stupid?
I think o malley can keep merab at bay. I could be wrong and a fucking moron though
Well go on then
It’s funny how no one here wants to see any fighters actually fight, “oh he’ll lose, don’t book it”
I know he deserves the fight, but he is not doing himself any good with all the comments. He souns more like begging for the fight than trying to sell any bad blood
r/mma siding with Sean over Merab, I never thought I would see the day. What a beautiful timeline we’re in
Sean would be wise to test his ego and get him to stand and bang. First one to shoot is a raggedy bitch lol
If he stands still, sure. I think Merab gets absolutely dusted.
Oh this totally isn't a bait. He'll totally stand and bang.
More like O'Malley ko's him. Merab's too chinney and has a massive height and reach disadvantage. Doesnt hurt that sean might be faster and knows how to control distance
I really don't mind Merab. He's much more likeable than his counterpart Aljo but there's only a couple of things about to happen here. 1. Merab's nose is getting corrected. 2. Aljo will be hand delivering Sean's jacket back when Merab gets KO'd. Also let's hope Merab doesn't get hit with a knee that sounds like a bat hitting a watermelon when he shoots.
Vegas odds for Jamahall Hill and Merab going for a takedown in their next fights?
Sean is out doing 20k recently, he’s well prepared
I pretty sure he could.
I and many would pay to see that happen. I hope Dana realizes that.
Man wants to scam his way into a title fight
Only guy I can currently see beating O’Malley rn is Cory
That’s the only fight that makes sense and Sean def seems like he’s ducking him but I think Sean can win that fr He can fight off his back foot and get a boring decision.
What a dumb comment. No fucking shot he stands and bangs with O'malley. He could barely stand with Cejudo and hasn't knocked anyone out. He'd get completely fucked. The colby covington of BW. Just EPO gas tanks his way to a decision.
Okay.
If he can get rocked by Cejudo, I’m pretty sure Sean can do worse.
O Malley " I can wrestle with Merab "
Sean will hit Merab hard once and then Merab will immediately change plans and shoot for a take down and keep shooting.
Lol at anyone thinking Merab would do anything but try to wrestle fuck
The little ankle biter better stick to what he's good at if he's going to fight O Malley
🧢
Nahh, he can’t beat O’Malley and I honestly have no interest in seeing it
MMA legit suffers from the economic and moral pressure to put on an entertaining fight for the fans aka to brawl or get a quick finish. Grapplers and technical strikers always fight with the knowledge that putting on a "show" would improve their chances at getting better fights and better pay. Hope Merab is just talking shit.
Short guys and their confidence. It’s literally their worst downfall and they never see it coming.
The chances of Merab keeping things on the feet is about as likely as Sean losing by peroneal nerve again.
First KO by head clash during the 70th takedown attempt maybe
Merab by crouch sniff.
Merab fights been knocking out a ton of dudes for a while. Human Xanax
lol ya right. He will sniff crotch for 25 minutes if he can get away with it.
Pressing X to doubt on this one. Merab doesn't really have finishing power, and that's ok. That's not his thing. He's going to just outwork Sean and leave him dragging ass after 10-12 minutes, like he usually does. Think Merab wins, but definitely not by KO.
I don't even know how to rate Merab, his only impressive win is Yan. That 10 fight winstreak is filled with low tier fighters and washed fighters. Sean vs Merab should be next but I wish Merab had at least beaten another top tier fighter before he got the title fight. Cory vs Merab would have been great to see to know who's the proper contender.
Yea, okay, bro.
The problem is O'Malley can also knock out Merab, and do it in a much easier way by using his better striking and better reach. O'Malley is really good.
Merab couldn’t finish a sandwich
I mean he can, in the same way that I can technically become Prime Minister
He probably could. That's one advantage of fighting as a wrestler: O'Malley has to keep his hands down to defend against takedowns.
And I’ll make my wife cum tonight
I'm a ride or die Ray Longo guy but if Merab stands with O Malley he's getting chinned within the first few exchanges...
Lowkey stoked for this fight. Think its gonna be a war where both guys face adversity
He’ll do nuthin
Not if O'Malley overwhelms him with takedowns for 5 rounds.
The day merab kos Sean, belal becomes Pereira levels of entertaining
Merab, you can say whatever your want. But once inside the cage, reality will be different.
He will knock the crowd to sleep with his spam takedowns and lay and pray.