Sean O'Malley confident in grappling prep for Merab Dvalishvili rematch at UFC 316
Sean O'Malley confident in grappling prep for Merab Dvalishvili rematch at UFC 316
Sean O'Malley vows he's much better prepared in his second training camp for UFC bantamweight champion Merab Dvalishvili.
O'Malley (18-2 MMA, 10-2 UFC) will look to avenge his bantamweight title loss to Dvalishvili at UFC 306 when the pair rematch in the June 7 main event at Prudential Center in Newark, N.J. O'Malley entered their first fight with a hip injury that later required surgery.
Now that O'Malley was healthy enough to go through an entire training camp to fine tune his grappling, he sees himself stopping Dvalishvili's (19-4 MMA, 12-2 UFC) offense.
"Every training camp you go through, you get a little bit better," O'Malley said on "The Jim Rome Show." "This training camp has been a long training camp. It's been just a lot of grappling. That's all we've been doing. When you're doing that five, six days a week, you're going to improve.
"We've been in camp for a long time now. I think we did about 12, 13 weeks of focusing on Merab, focusing on getting better in that area. It's been a long camp, and I've definitely improved. I've got to break 'The Machine.' I've got to beat him. I've got to win the positions. I know I can beat Merab."
O'Malley dismissed the notion that he needs an early finish to win.
"He's open to getting knocked out," O'Malley said. "I'm very confident that I can put his lights out, I'm also confident I can beat him in a five-round fight. There's definitely a possibility of me putting his lights out, but I'm ready to go for 25 minutes. I'm ready to have to dig deep."
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Yahoo
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The UFC's relentless schedule and the corporatization of combat sports
As we've seen with many publicly traded companies worldwide, the trends of corporatization have left their infectious fingerprints on many of the things we hold near and dear to our hearts. And for me, the UFC is one of those things. As a lifelong martial artist who was old enough to remember the karate and taekwondo booms of the early '90s, the UFC came along and introduced everyone to the world of MMA – a world that I have not stepped away from ever since. I'm incredibly fortunate to be able to cover this sport for a living, but I can't help but wonder: Would I still be around buying pay-per-views and spending 90 percent of my Saturdays glued to a screen for the current quality of UFC offerings if it wasn't my job? According to recent reports, a lot of fans have asked themselves similar questions and answered in kind. There's obviously a ton of things we can point to and ESPN+'s consistent shortcomings as an app and service certainly don't help the matter. However, I'd argue that a key common thread for a large number of our complaints can be traced back to the contractual obligations that are driven by content-hungry corporate overlords, resulting in a relentless UFC schedule that is steadily turning into a slop trough for the proverbial piggies to get their fill. Many of said "piggies" prefer to have their slop fed to them at the same time every Saturday, but there is an undeniable cost to stepping on the gas of a volatile combat sport that already lacks an offseason. And though I typically draw negative reactions whenever I point out the undeniable fact of cause and effect, this past Saturday's UFC card, which was supposed to be headlined by Erin Blanchfield vs. Maycee Barber, only added credence to the case that myself and many have made for years now regarding an over-saturated schedule. Some folks in the comments to my tweet embedded above were quick to misconstrue the message by making it be solely about Barber (who technically had longer notice than usual for her latest training camp), but that doesn't change the fact that the UFC of old could compensate for these fallouts with consistent quality. It also doesn't change the fact that the decent majority of fighters on these cards regularly forfeit full training camps to compete for the world leader. And for those saying the UFC had no other main event choices, let's not pretend that the matchmakers don't regularly bury lighter-weight contenders' fights like Blanchfield-Barber on undercards while simultaneously punishing fighters who have pulled out or are prone to pulling out a la Arman Tsarukyan before UFC 311. But this piece is not about Barber (whom I wish well) or any one particular person or event. It's about the health of the MMA space as a whole and how the UFC schedule is affecting it. From the constant card shuffling to bookings of impromptu fights and rematches, there's no denying that the UFC's health – despite its sheer dominance in this space – is connected to the sport's health. The purpose of this piece is to separate the MMA space into four different categories – the fighters, the fans, the promotion and the media – to better help explain the connections. First and foremost, let's start with the most important piece. Without the fighters, what would we watch? Who would the UFC promote? And who would I cover? However, despite their undeniable importance in the grand scheme of things, it's the fighters who are consistently finding themselves with the short straws and left with the heaviest costs from both physical and financial burdens. And though the "relentless UFC schedule" can technically afford them financial opportunities, the systemic effects of low fighter pay subsequently translate into a structural problem where a huge portion of the middle class that the UFC quietly built off the backs of has been largely obliterated to make way for the lowest bidder to fill their spot and keep the machine going. Consider Dana White's Contender Series. Don't get me wrong: plenty of good fighters have come through the Contender Series, and this isn't meant to be a criticism to any of them in particular. Nevertheless, there's no denying the corporate-style churning and housecleaning that the UFC has been able to do since the Contender Series launched. And when you factor in their need to hit contractual obligations by making themselves a viable commodity from a consistent content standpoint, you now see a much more carefree approach to what gets rubberstamped for rollout. Changing weight classes after a match was set was a big no-no for the UFC brass going back to the Joe Silva days, but now it's common for people to pull fight week stunts with their weight and still be accommodated in some form or fashion. Even an important divisional fight between top-ranked contenders like Ketlen Vieira vs. Macy Chiasson was forced to go forward with one fighter arguably at a disadvantage in a now-defunct division, while random matchups like Joe Pyfer vs. Kelvin Gastelum or John Castenada vs. Chris Gutierrez get preserved and rebooked over and over again. Obviously there are legitimate arguments and reasons for the cases cited, but none is more important and defining than whatever the current needs of the UFC schedule are. With this in mind, you can't help but wonder if the little leverage fighters had is somehow even lesser today. Conversely, at the top end of things, we're now seeing somehow even less meritocracy with the ranking system due to the superseding nature of the UFC schedule. So instead of deserved and sensible matchups, we've been fed a steady flow of rematches and impromptu fights ever since the pandemic. Or when we do get fresh or fun fights involving champions, they're now forced to relinquish their titles for the sake of the schedule, even if they're divisional greats who have defended such as Ilia Topuria or Islam Makhachev. Not only has the UFC undeniably steered away from their star-making approaches and embraces of the past, but their prioritization of having gold on the posters has taken an even more dramatic turn as even the top fighters are losing leverage. Hell, even International Fight Week headliners (which is basically one of the UFC's only regular tentpole events now that they've abandoned Superbowl, Memorial Day and New Year's weekend shows) barely even get their official bookings done by the industry standard of eight weeks out. And with the UFC schedule serving as the No. 1 priority, it's also not uncommon to see their traveling shows suffer even further since they seem perfectly fine with booking top Canadian talent in Iowa just a week before they visit the criminally underserved provinces of Canada – which is just one example of many in regards to the costs of keeping the UFC ship afloat. Getting ready for a cage fight is a hard enough thing to see to completion no matter who you are, so seeing everything from fight quality to fallouts become even more prevalent under the current conditions shouldn't be surprising. What is both surprising and sad, however, is that there's an arguable stagnation of skills and growth that's been happening during this period that many are describing as a plateau for the UFC. While everything between welterweight and featherweight are stacked beyond belief, many of the divisions – particularly the heavier-weight men's and women's weight classes – have either stagnated or outright regressed over the past decade. But with a strict schedule to keep, who has the time to properly build stars, much less successfully managed careers and divisions? The UFC has done such a great job of promoting its brand over the fighters throughout the years that now it's not uncommon for a lot of self-ascribed "fans of the sport" to be the first in line to push back on behalf of a company that shows less and less care toward them as they all collectively blame the media or the fighters themselves. The less vocal fans have spoken more with their dollars given the notable drops in viewership and PPV buys in recent years. Meanwhile, the UFC – which took an insane amount of victory laps for their efforts to get around COVID-19 regulations during a global pandemic – is still regularly running relatively the same amount of shows from their home base warehouse of the Apex in Las Vegas. And though the matchmakers will noticeably try a bit harder to book better fight slates for the live crowd of their traveling shows, it's still not up to snuff when you consider both the traditional UFC standard and the insulting inflation of their ticket prices. So now, the UFC, akin to fellow TKO stablemate WWE, regularly closes its shows with a post-event presser bragging about gate numbers with no self-awareness of its struggles with quality control or the struggles of fans to afford tickets. Even if you're among those who are financially stable enough to attend a live UFC show, where would you go and how often are you even going with their diminished traveling schedule? Or maybe you're not so much of a hardcore fan as you are an avid gambler, which is a lot of what makes up the sports space considering the mass marketing of betting these days. If that is the case, then you, too, should be concerned about the effects of the UFC schedule. As I've said many times before this latest health debacle happened with Barber, it's hard to know just how much of an honest fight you're even getting these days given all the extra pressures and lack of leverage involved with the fighters competing. Sure, I get that no fighter ever steps into the cage fully healthy and fighters fight through issues unknown to us all the time. But akin to my point about fight fallouts, fighters are both attempting and being allowed to fight through things they arguably shouldn't be at a seemingly higher rate than before, likely in part due to the previously mentioned needs of the UFC schedule. So, even if you're a selfish fan who couldn't care less about the fighters' wellbeing, you should still be concerned about the cause and effect of the UFC schedule given where you're spending not just your time every Saturday – but also your money. Whether we're talking about regional promotions or the UFC themselves, the schedule of the world leader affects all. The dominance of the market is so undeniable for the UFC that regional promotions will either look to put on events in lockstep with them or try and avoid competing with them at all costs, depending on their relationship. And even if you are friendly with the UFC as one of their unofficial feeder leagues, we've seen that come with its own costs considering that 'MMA's big brother' can always come knocking at your door to collect your current champions any time their insatiable schedule calls for it. As far as the UFC goes, most people tend to point to Dana White and the top of the company when it comes to complaints and compliments alike. However, mostly everyone sadly forgets to think about all who embody the UFC production staff – the hardest workers of the bunch and arguably the heart and soul of the company. I won't pretend to know the ins and outs of what it's like to work for the UFC, but I can tell you that the company has seen its share of internal turnovers for quite some time now, as I can only imagine the stress of a relentless week-to-week job that throws you multiple curveballs on the regular. For every time that there's a fight fallout that we're complaining about, multiple UFC production members are scrambling beyond their 'normal working hours' to redo a week's worth of preparation and graphics overnight. The only time these people are even referred to is when we're pointing out things like the subpar fight posters the UFC regularly puts out – but how much can we really expect for production value when they're on a constant week-to-week churn that kills creativity and promotes burnout? Although I hate to admit it given my criticisms of Mick Maynard and Sean Shelby's outright fetish for force-feedings us a constant slew of featured rematches and middleweights, the same sympathies can be extended to the matchmakers when you consider the machine they're tasked to feed. The UFC has done well with their broadcast team over the years as far as quality and keeping familiar faces in play. And though they finally threw in some play-by-play relief in the rotation to avoid burning out one of their most important players Jon Anik, the changes made behind the scenes and in the back of the house have been noticeable. From longtime beloved staples like Stitch Duran and Burt Watson getting the boot for speaking out about these changes to the fact that some of their replacements have even since turned over, it's hard to keep up with it all, much less retain any of the family-like feel of old that many have cited. There are still plenty of quality people working for the UFC today, so I always try my best to separate them from the decisions of the company that are made up top (and hope you can do the same). However, even if everyone at the UFC did want to implement the same changes we from the outside would like to see, how much can we really expect from them considering the content monster they've created? Last but not least, everyone's favorite: the media. I know most of the audience couldn't care less about us (which is totally fine, by the way), but if a lot of people are going to lazily share the same reaction in regards to pointing their fingers at us, then maybe they should at least understand how the media space is both driven and affected by the structural issues at hand. First off, let me state that I'm not a journalist or never claimed to be one, as I am much closer to the fan and fighter perspective of things given my background. That said, I do believe in journalistic ethics and codes, so seeing the outright deterioration of what little journalism we had in this space has been incredibly sad, to say the least. Now, we can't just "blame the UFC schedule" entirely here as this, akin to most things discussed, has a ton of contributing factors. From the UFC's ability to gatekeep credentials by upkeeping access-style media to the not-so-quiet encouragement to not ruffle any feathers in this space for the sake of your job, there are a ton of reasons why you're not seeing the questions you'd like asked or the kind of content and reporting you prefer. As one of the few media members in this space who has regularly done historical work for roughly a decade, I completely agree when people point out this sport's lack of respect and presence for its past. That said, I can also attest to the effects of the UFC schedule as someone who covers it more in-depth than most from week to week, as it's been harder and harder to find time to break away from this grind and the constant curveballs it throws. So, when you consider that most of us who are lucky enough to work in this space have to have multiple jobs just to barely survive, it can be hard to combat the inherent burnout involved (a struggle that I know many of my colleagues experience whether they vocalize it publicly or not). I can't defend all of my colleagues in the space given the fact that most of the media are steadily being overturned by influencers, who, oddly enough, have influenced a style of access media that's just cringy beyond compare. But given that the UFC president has promised he will eventually replace media row with influencers, I guess we shouldn't be surprised to see this shift. Even if a media member does want to ask a pertinent question, some of the only opportunities they have to ask them are at pre-fight press conferences that are full of mouth-breathing morons who will immediately shout down questions and cheer on whatever White's responses are (Where are the anti-Vince McMahon days of the WWE Attitude Era when you need it, right?). Although you can argue that there are much better venues and ways to try and bring real questions to the table, the UFC's relentless schedule makes pressers one of the only opportunities considering that White barely shows up for his own events anymore, as well as the fact that most surviving media companies were already forced to cut down their travel budgets due to the promotion's insane output of events – – the umpteenth example of how the schedule affects quality from all sides. First off, thank you for reading this far, as sadly the lack of people actually taking the time to read things is also a contributing factor to the media part of this problematic landscape. I know I touched on a lot of topics that are deserving of their own deep dives, and I hope I did a decent job of explaining my points while not over-conflating things unfairly. That said, I believe that this giant canary in a coal mine that is the UFC schedule (something that I and many others like Luke Thomas have been citing for years) is now becoming an undeniable problem to the masses. It's also important to note that the UFC is currently in network negotiations at the time of this writing as its current contract with ESPN expires, so perhaps we should leave some room to be surprised with structural and schedule changes to come – though I won't be holding my breath. The UFC that many like myself fell in love with is now sadly gone. Big UFC weekends with multiple shows and extensive fan interaction events whether you're a "Fight Club" member or not? Yeah-no. You now get Power Slap on Friday night and early access to insanely inflated ticket prices for cards that seem like they're being held together by band-aids at this point. Remember all the dunking the UFC did on boxing for having top-heavy cards? Yeah. They don't have that ammunition anymore. Long gone are the Dana White Vlog days of "we make the fights the fans want to see." Long gone is that mafia-like family feel that both the fighters and the fans embraced under a Fertitta-run UFC during the company's golden era when White regularly extended the amount of contracted bonuses during random Fight Night cards when he felt like it. Combat sports can maintain its rebel-like facade as much as you want it to, but not even something as wild as MMA is safe from the corporification that swallows up other spaces. Again: I don't mean to be bleak about all this as I, myself, am still investing and gambling with my career and well being on this sport's behalf. However, this all smacks like the end of the film "Casino," where Robert De Niro talks about the UFC's backyard – Las Vegas – and how nothing was ever the same after the corporations came in and took over. Perhaps it's the parallels of Ace Rothstein's job to mine, but the ending scene of that film serves as such a solid analog to the problems I wrote about in this article that I'll end things by sharing it so you can judge for yourself. This article originally appeared on MMA Junkie: The relentless UFC schedule and corporatization of combat | Opinion
USA Today
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MMA Junkie Radio #3571: Interviews with Miranda Maverick, John Wood, UFC recap, more
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Derrick Lewis glad to be 'fighting taxi cab drivers' in UFC: 'I ain't trying to get no title shot, hell nah'
Derrick Lewis is back — and he knows his place in the current UFC heavyweight division. The fan-favorite Lewis hasn't fought since since earning a third-round knockout of Rodrigo Nascimento in May 2024, however "The Black Beast" returns to action on July 12 when he steps into his 13th career UFC main event, headlining UFC Nashville opposite Tallison Teixeira. A successful night for Lewis would put him on his first win streak since 2021. Advertisement Currently seated No. 9 in the UFC heavyweight rankings, Lewis said Tuesday on Uncrowned's "The Ariel Helwani Show" that he's content taking his time beating relative promotional newcomers like Teixeira. "I ain't trying to get no title shot, hell nah," Lewis said. "I want to just continue fighting taxi cab drivers right now. Then we can start talking about title shots. "We'll see how active they try to keep me." Lewis, 40, was expected to fight sooner, as he was previously scheduled to face Alexander Romanov this past November. Shortly after the bout was made official, UFC changed Lewis' opponent to Jhonata Diniz, but then that fight fell through when Lewis suffered a non-weight-related medical issue on weigh-in day. Advertisement When discussing the withdrawal, Lewis joked about severe cramps as his reason for not fighting. After months of "begging," Lewis is simply glad to get back in the Octagon and didn't care who it came against. "A lot of guys didn't want to fight, and the guys that did, they already had fights booked. It's other stuff that's behind it. It's politics. It's also scripted," Lewis said, joking. "It's part of the script. You know, the whole UFC is scripted. It's part of the plan. On July 12, they want me to win, first-round knockout, so it's part of the script. Whoever wanna make that bet, go ahead and make that bet. "It didn't matter who [was next]," Lewis continued. "The Dominican dude that say he's not Black, he's Dominican, he called me out (Waldo Cortes-Acosta). I would want to fight him. That would have been good to fight him in March, whenever they were looking for a main event then. I wanted to fight him then. I've been training for four months straight." When Lewis broke the UFC's all-time record for most knockout wins (14) against Marcos Rogerio de Lima in 2023, he had finished his UFC contract. His ensuing — albeit brief — free agency period led Lewis to entertain the idea of a rematch against his old foe, Francis Ngannou, in the PFL. But ultimately the UFC's offer was better, and locked Lewis in for eight more fights at the time of signing. He now has six left. Advertisement Lewis has challenged for UFC gold on two occasions, losing via rear-naked choke to Daniel Cormier in 2018 and then losing to Ciryl Gane in 2021 for the interim title. The Texan never expected he'd be fighting into his 40s, but with this current trajectory, he can see his career extending for another decade. "I can continue fighting these taxi-cab fighters, these newcomers coming in who want to get their name," Lewis said. "I like fighting guys like that right now. Keep 'em coming. "Once they hit me with that contract, I said, 'S***, I could fight until I'm 50. Let's go. Let's do it.'" Assuming Lewis does stick around for years to come, you'd think another eventual title shot would enter his mind if he finds success. With all the turmoil atop the division between the champions Jon Jones and Tom Aspinall, however, Lewis couldn't be any less concerned with finding his way into the mix. "I don't give a damn what they got going on," Lewis said of the UFC heavyweight title picture. "S***, I'm barely in the top 10. I'm way down there. I'm nobody right now. So I'm not worried about them. If that's what they want to do, let them do that."
