Absolutely dominant. Merab Dvalishvili is that good.
Dvalishvili submitted Sean O’Malley in the second round to retain his men’s bantamweight title at UFC 361 Saturday night at Prudential Center after being taken down again and again through the just under 10-minute fight.
O’Malley had a tough time stopping the offensive onslaught coming at him, as Dvalishvili kept coming forward and couldn’t be stopped.
Dvalishvili looked up at the clock and saw there was 30 seconds left in the second round, and went for a neck crank and guillotine attempt, which forced O’Malley to go to his back.
Dvalishvili then adjusted and O’Malley could do nothing but tap.
“I am on top of the world,” Dvalishvili said after the fight.
It was an incredible performance from Dvalishvili, who now has defended his title twice after also defeating Umar Nurmagomedov in January.
Dvalishvili’s submission win sets him up to defend against Cory Sandhagan next time out.
Kayla Harrison is now arguably the most accomplished mixed martial artist in United States history after winning the women’s bantamweight title of Julianna Peña.
We saw the full assortment of absolute domination from the former PFL champion and judoka Olympic gold medalist, a submission win in the second round via Kimura lock.
Harrison’s dominant performance was mostly non-competitve as Peña landed just eight strikes in the loss.