Coach: Sean O’Malley will find Merab Dvalishvili ‘hittable’ at UFC 306

Augusto Mendes did a full camp to prepare for Merab Dvalishvili back in April of 2018, but never had his night in the cage with the Georgian. Six years later, he helps Sean O’Malley prepare to defend his UFC bantamweight title against Dvalishvili this Saturday at UFC 306 at Sphere in Las Vegas.

Jiu-jitsu legend “Tanquinho” has worked as O’Malley’s jiu-jitsu coach for years in Arizona and sees Dvalishvili as basically the same fighter from 2018 — with a few slight changes over the years.

“His hands are a bit better now but he won’t change his essence, which is wrestling and volume,” Mendes said in an interview with MMA Fighting. “This guy doesn’t stop and has endless cardio, walks forward the entire time, but he’s hittable. [Henry] Cejudo rocked him. Marlon Moraes almost knocked him out in the first round. He gets hit a lot, but Sean hits different. If he eats one of those hands others have landed, that might be the end of the fight.”

Dvalishvili was coming off a split-decision loss to Frankie Saenz when he agreed to face Mendes, who aimed to bounce back from a decision defeat to Aljamain Sterling. Ricky Simon replaced the Brazilian jiu-jitsu ace at UFC Atlantic City and controversially choked out Dvalishvili with a guillotine in the third round.

Dvalishvili hasn’t lost since, collecting 10 straight UFC victories against the likes of Marlon Moraes, John Dodson, Jose Aldo and Petr Yan, which led to a shot at gold after he scored a win over Cejudo this past February.

“We’re treating this fight as any other fight,” Mendes said of the UFC 306 main event. “We’ve obviously trained a lot of wrestling and jiu-jitsu and his striking, so it’s no different. We know Merab’s qualities and we know it’s a good challenge. I’m quite confident, honestly. Sean will show what he can do to someone of Merab’s caliber.

“Every time Sean fights people say he won’t win. It was the same with [Aljamain Sterling]. ‘Aljo will kill him and blah, blah, blah.’ I personally thought Aljamain Sterling was a tougher fight than Merab. I think Merab has superior wrestling, but Aljamain has better jiu-jitsu. My concern in that fight was [Sterling] taking him down, and progressing on the ground, and maybe Sean making a mistake.

“That’s not the case with Merab. Merab is more of a volume fighter. He wants to take you down and just stay there, hitting you and scoring points, instead of progressing with jiu-jitsu to go for a submission. That’s why I don’t worry that much [about his ground game] as I did with Aljamain.”

O’Malley knocked out Sterling to claim UFC gold in August of 2023, then successfully defended it this past March with a dominant decision against Marlon Vera, a victory that also avenged O’Malley’s sole loss as a professional.

“Every time there’s a wrestler people think it’s going to go there and take Sean down, but he has proven time and time again that taking him down is no easy task,” Mendes said. “And even if he’s taken down, he can do things off his back. It’s a difficult matchup, but it’s not an impossible one. This fight might end quickly, he goes there and knocks him out fast. Stop some takedown attempts and Merab gets frustrated. Stylistically, I thought Aljo was harder than Merab.”

Mendes said he was approached by Abu Dhabi-based grappling promotion ADXC earlier this year with an offer to grapple Dvalishvili in the U.A.E., but it didn’t come to fruition. He said Dvalishvili turned it down, and understands his decision knowing he’s O’Malley’s jiu-jitsu coach, but remains open to the idea of facing him in the future.

ADXC has two cards planned for the remaining of the year, an Oct. 25 show in Abu Dhabi, followed by a Nov. 17 event in Brazil, and Mendes likes the November date.

“When I trained to fight Merab [in the UFC], I thought it was an excellent fight for me stylistically speaking,” Mende said. “Even if [Dvalishvili] took me down, there was a high chance I’d submit him on the ground. If it’s a cool name from the MMA world, I’d do it. I’d like to face Merab because our fight didn’t happen. I think it would be a good fight and it would favor me. In jiu-jitsu, at this weight class, no one has ever taken me down. I’ve fought and trained with many high-level grapplers, and I think I would surprise him.”