Sean O’Malley and Merab DvalishviliJeff Bottari/Zuffa LLC
Las Vegas lived up to its reputation 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 delivered — it’s just too bad they overlapped.
UFC 306 marked the promotion’s debut in the new Las Vegas Sphere and lived up to all the pre-fight hype, taking full advantage of the state-of-the-art arena’s many bells and whistles. Also called Noche UFC, it commemorated 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 heading in the marquee fight, but ultimately 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 predicted it would. The Georgian, who is one of the most relentless wrestlers in MMA at present, completed takedown after takedown throughout the five-round fight. While he was badly hurt by a body shot in the final round, he successfully neutral
