Cory Sandhagen gives Sean O’Malley some advice for Merab Dvalishvili rematch

Cory Sandhagen has given his thoughts on what Sean O’Malley can do to defeat Merab Dvalishvili in their rematch.

In the main event of UFC 316, Sean O’Malley will challenge Merab Dvalishvili for the UFC bantamweight championship. Dvalishvili was able to take the belt from ‘Suga’ last year in their first encounter, with many wondering whether or not the outcome would be different if they were to run it back. Well, next month, we’ll get the chance to find out.

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It goes without saying that O’Malley needs to approach the rematch differently. He needs to be smarter, he needs to be cleaner in his execution, and his defensive wrestling needs to be even better. For Dvalishvili, he’ll try and go back to what got him to the dance, and what also helped him successfully defend the belt against Umar Nurmagomedov.

In a recent interview, Cory Sandhagen gave some advice to O’Malley about how he can best approach this challenge.

Sandhagen’s advice for O’Malley

“I don’t think the answer to beating Merab is a ton of footwork and keeping space,” Sandhagen said. “I think O’Malley’s a lot longer, like Umar tried it, and O’Malley tried it the first time: Move your feet, keep a bunch of distance, and do it that way. That’s a way to do it, but when a guy has a massive gas tank that’s just like a superhero, I think that you just set your space and when Merab gets close to you, you hit that fool.

“And that sounds really simple and maybe not the most technical way, but I do think that’s a way to combat the conditioning piece. I don’t even think that he has to bring it to Merab, he just has to just try to counter him, but not counter and reset a thousand times. He just has to stand there, defend the shots as best he can, and when Merab gets close to him, just hit him.”

Quotes via MMA Junkie

Who are you backing in the rematch? Let us know, BJPENN Nation!