UFC 316 — Merab Dvalishvili vs. Sean O’Malley 2 fight card: Biggest storylines to watch in New Jersey

In the first of two pay-per-view events in the month of June for the worldwide leader in MMA, UFC 316 will take place on Saturday at the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey.

A pair of title bouts will top the marquee as bantamweight champion Merab Dvalishvili defends his title in the main event in a rematch against former champion Sean O’Malley. In the co-feature, women’s bantamweight titleholder Julianna Pena welcomes her highly favored challenger Kayla Harrison. 

As we draw closer to Saturday’s card, let’s take a look at the biggest storylines surrounding UFC 316.

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Brent Brookhouse

1. Sean O’Malley leaving no stone unturned in quest to regain title

Nine months after he lost the bantamweight title to Dvalishvili, the 30-year-old O’Malley has brought an all-or-nothing attitude into training for his shot at regaining UFC gold. O’Malley has sworn off everything from podcasting and smoking marijuana ahead of the rematch. In fact, the married father of one has also taken a vow of celibacy. The extreme lifestyle change is O’Malley’s way to remove any potential excuses, unlike their first meeting at UFC 306 in Las Vegas, where “Suga” put off torn labrum surgery in order to take the fight (and his coach, Tim Welch, later revealed that O’Malley had trouble seeing Dvalishvilli’s strikes in their first fight due to the unique lighting at The Sphere). This is O’Malley doubling down on his hope of reigniting a run atop the 135-pound division while removing all possible distractions. A win likely restores O’Malley’s standing as one of UFC’s bigger attractions while a loss could send him directly into a move up in weight to 145 pounds. 

2. Merab Dvalishvili is quietly in the midst of an all-time great run

With just one victory by stoppage in 14 walks to the Octagon, fans have become accustomed to expecting that the 34-year-old Dvalishvili will go the distance each and every time he fights. That’s about the only negative you can say about the native of Georgia, however, who is in the midst of an incredible 12-fight win streak. The largely indestructible Dvalishvili, who possesses among the best cardio in the sport’s history, has done so despite a bevy of injuries along the way, which a recently damaged pinky in training camp or the crippling back injury that led his team unsuccessfully pushing for him to withdraw from his first title defense in January. The most impressive part of Merab’s current streak are the names he has defeated in his last six bouts: Marlon Moraes, Jose Aldo, Petr Yan, Henry Cejudo, O’Malley and Umar Nurmagomedov. Adding a potential second victory over O’Malley to his growing legacy could see Dvalishvili get more consideration to the idea of being the greatest fighter in UFC bantamweight history. 

3. Kayla Harrison’s biggest challenges continues to be her weight cut

Although Harrison, a former two-time PFL champion, enters as an overwhelming betting favorite to end Pena’s second title reign at women’s bantamweight, all eyes will be on the 34-year-old entering Friday’s weigh-in. Harrison competed at 171 pounds when she twice won Olympic gold medals in judo and then competed in PFL at 155 pounds to start her MMA career. But with UFC having recently closed the doors on its women’s 145-pound division, Harrison was forced into an extreme weight cut in order to make her UFC title dreams become a reality. Even though Harrison went 2-0 in 2024 after making her UFC debut, the weight cut has been anything but easy. Harrison admitted to being hospitalized after urinating blood during fight week ahead of her decision win over Ketlen Viera last October and has revealed that she must run six miles and train twice a day throughout camp in order to ensure that she’s on weight. While the jury is still out as to whether Harrison (who turns 35 in July) can sustain making this weight in the long run, most consider the actual fight against Pena to be a foregone conclusion provided she wins Friday’s matchup on the scale first. 

4. A Harrison win could be a big boon for women’s MMA in general

Let’s be honest about something: the current apathy most UFC fans for women’s MMA has been overwhelming of late. Even after UFC chose to sunset its 145-pound division, the remaining three weight classes have largely featured a gaping lack of elite depth and a recent run of less-than-exciting fights involving the best of each division. Nothing was more representative of that negative trend than Pena’s disputed split-decision win over Raquel Pennington last October to regain the 135-pound title amid a chorus of boos from the crowd. While a Harrison win, on its own, would likely be a positive for women’s MMA in UFC given her inspiring backstory and charisma on the microphone, it could also produce something much bigger and exciting. Amanda Nunes, the 37-year-old former two-division UFC champion who is regarded as the greatest female fighter in MMA history, has been teasing a comeback. Nunes and Harrison have plenty of history together as former teammates at American Top Team in South Florida until Nunes, jealous that the coaching staff was focusing too much time on Harrison, decided to leave and open her own gym. This could be the juicy superfight that women’s MMA has needed for some time now.  

5. It’s time to find out how good Patchy Mix really is

As a former Bellator MMA bantamweight champion, the 31-year-old submission ace is riding a seven-fight unbeaten streak and was, until recently, considered one of the best active fighters not currently signed to UFC. That all changed when PFL, which bought out Bellator’s roster in 2024, chose to grant Mix’s wish for a release on May 13. Less than one month later, the opportunistic Mix not only signed with UFC, he quickly accepted a last-minute offer to debut at UFC 316 this weekend in a matchup against Mario Bautista, who is in the mindset of his own seven-fight win streak. Mix, the significant other of UFC women’s strawweight contender Tatiana Suarez, has some of the best jiu-jitsu in all of MMA and owns recent dominant wins over the likes of James Gallagher, Kyoji Horiguchi, Magomed Magomedov, Raufeon Stots and Sergio Pettis. A win over Bautista could catapult Mix into instant contention for the 135-pound title which is a refreshing twist for such a talented fighter who needed to plead on social media for PFL to either book him into a big fight or release him.