Dvalishvili has to “take some hits” to defeat O'Malley at UFC 306

Ray Longo can't imagine a world in which Merab Dvalishvili takes the title from Sean O'Malley at UFC 306 without a fight.

Longo, who trained Dvalishvili (17-4 MMA, 10-2 UFC) for most of his career at the Serra-Longo Fight Team in Long Island, NY, before the bantamweight contender moved to Las Vegas, believes O'Malley (18-1 MMA, 10-1 UFC) will find his moments to land with his hands in Saturday's title fight at Sphere (ESPN+ pay-per-view, ESPNews).

The only question is whether Dvalishvili can absorb the damage and continue to pursue his own game plan.

“He's got to take some hits to win this fight – period,” Longo said on “The Anik & Florian Podcast” ahead of UFC 306. “O'Malley is a sharpshooter. If you go in there thinking you're not going to get hit or you're just going to do this or that, I think that's a big mistake.”

Dvalishvili has never been knocked out in his career to date. According to UFC Stats, he has only been knocked down once in his 12 fights in the UFC, against former title challenger Marlon Moraes in an epic comeback at UFC 266 in September 2021.

Longo remembers the fight against Moraes well, he said, and he hopes Dvalishvili will not repeat mistakes ahead of the UFC title fight against O'Malley, for which he worked so hard with a 10-fight winning streak.

“If I tell you how many times I worked with him (before the Moraes fight) on getting under the left hook – and that's the punch he took,” Longo said. “I said, 'You're going to have to walk through fire at some point in this fight.' And that's exactly what he did. It's going to be kind of the same. Merab knows what's coming.

“I think O'Malley is really good. I don't think O'Malley has ever fought anyone with as much pressure as Merab, and I don't think Merab has ever fought anyone with as much length, accuracy and power as O'Malley.”

For more information on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 306.