Merab Dvalishvili submitted Sean O’Malley at UFC 316 to retain his bantamweight title.
Dvalishvili stopped the fight with a guillotine choke at four minutes and 42 seconds of round number three.
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O’Malley showed signs of keeping ‘The Machine’ at bay, but Dvalishvili displayed his elite level once again to put his name in the MMA history books forever.
Dvalishvili has now etched his name in the UFC record books, having extended his unbeaten run to 13 wins in a row.
He is now alongside UFC legends like Jon Jones, Khabib Nurmagomedov, Georges St-Pierre, Max Holloway and Demetrious Johnson on the list of fighters with the longest undefeated streaks in the promotion.
Islam Makhachev and Kamaru Usman are just ahead of Dvalishvili on 15 wins, with Anderson Silva out alone with the longest perfect streak in UFC history with 16 consecutive wins.
Dvalishvili‘s win was his first career victory by choke, and only his second victory by submission.
After the fight, UFC commentator Joe Rogan described Dvalishvili’s performance as ‘freakish,’ and said he is the greatest bantamweight of all time.
Dvalishvili dethroned O’Malley of the bantamweight strap at UFC 306 in September, before defending the strap against Umar Nurmagomedov four months later.
The victory over O’Malley was his third defence of the title and he will now attempt to keep on smashing records against No. 4 ranked UFC bantamweight Cory Sandhagen.
Elsewhere in New Jersey, JooSang Yoo started the card with an incredible Conor McGregor-like knockout.
Kevin Holland submitted Vicente Luque with a D’Arce choke to climb into the welterweight rankings, while Mario Bautista scored an upset by claiming a unanimous decision win over UFC debutant Patchy Mix.
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Also on the main card, Joe Pyfer defeated Kevin Gastelum via unanimous decision at middleweight to go 5-1 in the UFC, and Kayla Harrison dominated Julianna Pena to win the women’s bantamweight strap.
O’Malley opened up the fight with a spinning back kick as he looked to press Dvalishvili from the off.
However, Dvalishvili quickly switched the momentum and embarked on his usual fighting style of non-stop relentless pressure.
Dvalishvili attempted to drag O’Malley to the canvas for the first time, but ‘Suga’ got straight back up.
After an impressibe start to the round, O’Malley eventually found himself on his back, and Dvalishvili entered round two in the lead.
In the second, Dvalishvili landed some nice early combinations, showing his ever improving striking game.
UFC 316 Main Card Results
One title change in New Jersey
- Merab Dvalishvili def. Sean O’Malley via third-round submission (guillotine choke)
- Kayla Harrison def. Julianna Pena via second-round submission (kimura)
- Joe Pyfer defeated Kelvin Gastelum via unanimous decision
- Mario Bautista def. Patchy Mix via unanimous decision
- Kevin Holland def. Vicente Luque via second-round submission (d’arce hoke)
He attempted to get O’Malley down, but ‘Suga’ showed tremendous defensive work as Dvalishvili had been successful in just one of his opening five takedowns as we entered round three.
Things started to move in the champion’s favour when he was successful in taking O’Mallet to the mat just 30 seconds into the third stanza.
Dvalishvili stayed in full guard, and O’Malley nearly found his feet with 90 seconds to go, but the former secured takedown number four and we were in the same position again.
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The champion then saw an opening and jumped on O’Malley’s neck before locking in a tight choke and forcing his American opponent to submit.
O’Malley, meanwhile, had insisted ahead of the bout that he had ‘definitely improved’ after a long training camp with several changes to his preparation for the first meeting with Dvalishvili in September.
‘Suga’ knew something had to change for the rematch, and he revealed in December that he had quit smoking marijuana and all forms of social media before UFC 316.
However, O’Malley will have to go back to the drawing board once again with his next steps in doubt.
Ahead of UFC 316, talkSPORT.com spoke to Terrion Ware, who is one of just two fighters to share the Octagon with O’Malley and Dvalishvili.
Ware predicted that Dvalishvili would get the win in New Jersey, outlining his elite fight IQ.
“You can move with Merab. He’s not vert strong,” Ware said.
“But that’s a part of his genius in his grappling, and I don’t think people take into account his IQ when it comes to fighting and grappling.
“What he does is he makes you grapple at his pace, knowing or betting on that you’re not going to be able to keep up.
“And you see him just drown guys and he gets TKOs, or you get him in the third or fourth round, they just stop trying at a certain point.”
O’Malley certainly stopped trying at UFC 316 as he tapped out to Dvalishvili in the main event.