By Philip O’Connor
(Reuters) – Georgia’s Merab Dvalishvili outclassed Sean O’Malley over five rounds to win the UFC bantamweight title in the main event at UFC 306 on Saturday, with Valentina Shevchenko reclaiming the flyweight belt with a decision victory over Mexico’s Alexa Grasso.
Dvalishvili dominated from the opening horn, ignoring his opponent’s height and reach advantages and using his immense strength to repeatedly take O’Malley to the mat, keeping him there for much of the fight.
The American, who knocked out Dvalishvili’s teammate Aljamain Sterling to win the title in August 2023, never got his striking and movement going, and he presented a static target for many of his opponent’s takedown attempts.
Needing a finish in the fifth and final frame to have any chance of retaining his title, O’Malley hurt Georgian Dvalishvili with a front kick to the body, but he was taken down again in the final seconds and ended the fight on his back as his hopes of retaining his title evaporated.
“We fight, and it’s not always the best fighter that wins, but today I am the best fighter in the UFC, I proved (that),” an elated Dvalishvili said in a post-fight interview in the cage.
Dubbed “Noche UFC”, the pay-per-view event marked Mexico’s Independence Day, which falls on Sept 16, and was held at the new Sphere venue and featured promotional films celebrating the country and its fighting heritage.
The crowd rose to welcome Mexican champ Grasso to the cage for the co-main event, but it was Shevchenko, who lost her UFC crown to Grasso in March 2023 and then drew the rematch in September, who dominated with her grappling.
Grasso’s best moment of the fight came in the fourth round when she latched on to a guillotine choke, but Kyrgyztan’s Shevchenko kept her cool and managed to extract herself en route to a unanimous decision win on the judges’ scorecards.
(Reporting by Philip O’Connor; editing by Miral Fahmy)
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