Sean O’Malley Has Been Left With Just 1 Option

Sean O’Malley is in a tough spot.

He trained hard, prepared, and did everything within his power to regain the UFC men’s bantamweight title on Saturday night at the Prudential Center in New Jersey during the UFC 316 main event, but he fell to champion Merab Dvalishvili for the second straight time.

To put it plainly, Dvalishvili is a nightmare matchup for any bantamweight, and O’Malley is not the exception. After having defeated O’Malley via decision in September 2024 at Noche UFC, Dvalishvili was even more dominant on Saturday.

The champion successfully defended his title via third-round submission.

Because O’Malley has now suffered back-to-back losses to Dvalishvili, he appears to be down to just one option if he hopes to advance his career and return to championship glory: O’Malley needs to move up to featherweight.

As long as Dvalishvili is the champion at 135 pounds, it will be a long time before O’Malley gets another title shot. Cory Sandhagen and Petr Yan both seem more likely to get their title shot before O’Malley re-enters the conversation about the former champion’s title contention.

Does O’Malley want to wait years for another title shot? Probably not. O’Malley is still a star and a huge draw. The crowd in New Jersey was loud in favor of the Helena, Montana native.

Finding a worthy dance partner ranked below him in the bantamweight division will be tough, and it doesn’t make a ton of sense for O’Malley.

Also, there is a chance he can walk right into a high-profile fight in the featherweight division.

At 5-foot-11, the 30-year-old O’Malley is not too small for the 145-pound weight class. In fact, you could make the argument O’Malley might be the favorite to defeat at least 10 of the fighters in the featherweight rankings.

There’s also a plethora of interesting fights O’Malley could have in the featherweight division. O’Malley vs. any of these featherweight contenders is a main card fight on a pay-per-view card: Josh Emmett, Yair Rodriguez, Jean Silva, Lerone Murphy, Aljamain Sterling (rematch), or Diego Lopes.

After the fight on Saturday night, a visibly dejected but highly respectful O’Malley said he was going to go home to his family to regroup. It should not come as a surprise if he announces plans to move up to featherweight ahead of his next fight.

In case you missed it, here is a look at all of the results from New Jersey on Saturday night.

UFC 316 Results

• (c) Merab Dvalishvili defeats Sean O’Malley by submission (ninja choke) at 4:42 of Round 3 – Dvalishvili retains his title
• Kayla Harrison defeats (c) Julianna Peña by submission (kimura) at 4:55 of Round 2 – Harrison is the new UFC women’s bantamweight champion
• Joe Pyfer defeats Kelvin Gastelum by unanimous decision (29-28, 29-27, 30-27)
• Mario Bautista defeats Patchy Mix by unanimous decision (29-28, 30-27, 30-27)
• Kevin Holland defeats Vicente Luque by submission (D’arce choke) at 1:03 of Round 2
• Joshua Van defeats Bruno Silva by TKO (strikers) at 4:01 of Round 3
• Azamat Murzakanov defeats Brendson Ribeiro by TKO (strikes) at 3:25 of Round 1
• Waldo Cortes Acosta defeats Serghei Spivac by unanimous decision (30-37, 29-28, 29-28)
• Andreas Gustafsson defeats Khaos Williams by unanimous decision (30-27, 30-26, 30-26)
• Wang Cong defeats Ariane da Silva by unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)
• JooSang Yoo defeats Jeka Saragih by KO (left hook) at 0:28 of Round 1
• Quillan Salkilld defeats Yanal Ashmouz by unanimous decision (30-27, 29-28, 29-28)
• MarQuel Mederos defeats Mark Choinski by unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 29-28)

UFC 316 Bonus Winners

Dvalishvili, Harrison, Kevin Holland and JooSang Yoo