Dana White called out for gifting ‘chicken’ Sean O’Malley free title shot

UFC bantamweight Petr Yan calls on Sean O'Malley's UFC 316 PPV challenge vs. Merab Dvalishvili a Dana White privilege.

Dana White called out for gifting ‘chicken’ Sean O’Malley free title shot

Petr Yan bills UFC 316's Sean O'Malley title shot a Dana White gift (Source: IMAGO/X)

After losing to Merab Dvalishvili last September, Sean O’Malley will run things back again at the UFC 316 PPV headliner. In the lead-up to the UFC 306 main event, the tone had some heat between them. But the Georgian now supports Dana White’s brand superstar and former champ getting an immediate title shot again. One name that has taken umbrage with that is Russian striker Petr Yan.

Sean O’Malley still holds his spot as the #1 ranked bantamweight on the athlete listings. Beyond that is Umar Nurmagomedov, who ‘Machine’ outworked at the UFC 311 PPV event. When this matchup came to be, Merab Dvalishvili defended ‘Suga’ for getting an immediate shot. He upheld this PPV title pairing as a familiar territory for both, and that O’Malley needed his revenge.

Everybody knows UFC gave a present to O’Malley a second time. When I was fighting O’Malley, I beat him. UFC gave him a present there, and now they gave him a title fight. He’s a chicken — a guy for UFC to make money.

Petr Yan on the ‘Submission Radio’ Show for SBNation Network (🎥: @SubmissionRadio on YT)

Post-UFC 306, O’Malley needed surgery on his hip cartilage (labrum) and said the recovery would impede with his camp. But now, he is ready to get back to it. Petr Yan, though, has his issues, and billed that Sean O’Malley got his usual dose of ‘Dana White Privilege.’

The Russian striker already has had some pent-up issues about his split decision loss to O’Malley at UFC 280; based on which came the UFC 292 title shot. A second PPV title ‘gift’ just didn’t sit well with ‘No Mercy.’

More so because Petr Yan himself has reeled back 2-0 in the win column. He first went the distance against rising star Song Yadong. The Russian bantamweight last won at UFC Macau in 2024. So, Yan has quite the winning momentum, and Dvalishvili himself was once angling for a matchup. However, Dana White’s privilege or not, O’Malley treads ahead and has his work cut out for him.

Cory Sandhagen advises former champ Sean O’Malley on overcoming champ Merab Dvalishvili

#4-ranked UFC 135-pounder Cory Sandhagen put in the hours and shot his shot at the UFC Des Moines (aka UFC on ESPN 67) card. After a hard tangle and second-round TKO over Deiveson Figueiredo, ‘Sandman’ might just have earned his spot as PPV title backup. But before he could be the third wheel to Merab Dvalishvili and Sean O’Malley, Sandhagen once advised Suga on it.

Sean O'Malley has ways to win vs. Merab Dvalishvili
Sean O’Malley has ways to win vs. Merab Dvalishvili (Source: X)

The UFC 316 PPV titlist fighters meet on the June 7 card at Prudential Center in Newark, N.J. Although a Best ESPY fighter winner for his insurmountable striking stat in a single PPV title bout, Sean O’Malley failed to mount any offense at UFC 306. The ‘Machine’ from Georgia proved a whole different beast with his gargantuan cardio capacity and gave very little to do.

O’Malley teeped off in a later round, but outside of a meager body kick, the champ was dominant throughout. Sandhagen had thought out that O’Malley needed to better capitalize on Dvalishvili’s lean-ins and entries and let his sure strikes go.

O’Malley’s real shot at winning this thing is a puncher’s chance, kind of, …Merab is going to take O’Malley down a number of times in this next fight. O’Malley’s ability to get up was really bad in his first fight with Merab. He was doing steps that he could have just – there’s better ways to stand up than the ways he was going about doing it. O’Malley is going to get taken down a lot, and hopefully he learned how to stand up a lot better.

Cory Sandhagen on the “MIGHTY” Podcast (@Mighty15x) 

Per the title aspirant Sandhagen, it’s not about defending against Dvalishvili. But rather, it is all about quick recovery and answering back without hesitation. If the ex-champ could punctuate the scoring piece of his standup element and set a pace, Sandhagen thinks it could affect the optics.

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