Sept 15 (Askume) – Georgia’s Merab Dvalishvili knocked out Sean O’Malley in five rounds in the main event of UFC 306 on Saturday to win the UFC bantamweight title, and Valentina Shevchenko regained the flyweight belt with a decision win over Mexico’s Alexa Grasso.
Dvalishvili dominated from the start, ignoring his opponent’s height and reach advantages and using his immense strength to knock O’Malley to the mat multiple times, keeping him down for significant periods of time.
The American won the title in August 2023 by defeating Dvalishvili’s teammate Aljamain Sterling, but his attack and movement never got going, and many of his opponent’s takedown attempts resulted in stationary targets.
Needing a finish in the fifth and final round to have any chance of retaining his title, O’Malley caught Georgi Dvalishvili with a front kick to the body, but was knocked down again in the final seconds, ending the match on his back.
“We fight and not always the best fighter wins, but today I am the best fighter in the UFC and I proved it,” said an excited Dvalishvili in a post-fight interview inside the cage.
The pay-per-view event, titled “Noche UFC,” commemorates Mexico’s Independence Day on Sept. 16, takes place at the new Sphere venue and features a promotional video celebrating Mexico and its fighting heritage.
The crowd stood to welcome Mexican champion Grasso to the cage for the co-main event, but Shevchenko, who lost the UFC title to Grasso in March 2023 before their rematch was drawn in September, dominated the grappling.
Grasso’s best moment of the fight came in the fourth round when she faced a guillotine choke, but Kyrgyzstan’s Shevchenko kept her cool and managed to pull out the fight to win via unanimous decision on the judges’ scorecards.
