UFC 306 and Canelo Alvarez ''Sean O'Malley and Merab Dvalishvili''
UFC 306 and Canelo Alvarez Delivered
Events Shouldn't Happen at the Same Time
''Sean O'Malley and Merab Dvalishvili''
Las Vegas lived up to its repute as the fight capital of the world on Saturday night, playing host to both UFC 306 and the latest title defense from boxing star Saul "Canelo" Alvarez. Both events happened — it's just too bad they overlapped.UFC 306 striking the promotion's debut in the new Las Vegas Scope and lived up to all the pre-fight hype, taking full gain of the state-of-the-art arena's many bells and whistles. Also called Noche UFC, it celebrated Mexican Independence Day, and featured many of the promotion's top Mexican fighters — except for the main event, which pitted American champ Sean O'Malley against Georgian challenger Merab Dvalishvili in a bantamweight title fight.
O'Malley, who won the belt with a knockout of Dvalishvili's training partner Aljamain Sterling last year and defended it with a decision win over Marlon "Chito" Vera earlier this year, was one of the promotion's biggest stars’ slogan in the marquee fight, but eventually suffered a comprehensive, unanimous-decision loss.
"I feel like I'm in a dream," an elated Dvalishvili told commentator Joe Rogan after the fight, with the bantamweight belt wrapped around his waist. "Today I'm the best fighter in the UFC."
It went more or less exactly the way anyone who was picking Dvalishvili expected it would. The Georgian, who is one of the most relentless wrestlers in MMA at present, completed takedown after takedown during the course of the five-round fight. While he was badly hurt by a body shot in the final round, he successfully neutralized the champ's pinpoint striking and controlled enough of the fight himself to make the judges' verdict obvious.
"That's what I do every day — twice a day," the Georgian said. "I work hard.
"Nothing was surprising," he added. "I knew he was good but I made him look normal."
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