DC & Brett Okamoto preview Dvalishvili vs. O’Malley and Peña vs. Harrison at #UFC316 | ESPN MMA

DC & Brett Okamoto preview Dvalishvili vs. O’Malley and Peña vs. Harrison at #UFC316 | ESPN MMA

what’s up fight fans ufc 316 is upon us and it’s my favorite time of the week i get to stand here and talk about fights with Daniel Cormier what a blessed life I live right yes you do hey your name is Brett and you work for ESPN i know that you Yeah don’t forget you’re Brett it’s a tough job i got to say where I work what my name is yeah cuz you’re good-looking you get to stand here but you got to remember what your name is it’s tough when you’re a pretty face man you don’t think you have to do anything else because we’re okay using you for your pretty face all right 3:16 we got Shawn Omali taking on Marab Davishi i want to say something that came to my mind thinking about this fight and that I remember specifically it was like the pre-show UFC nochce we were talking about this fight and I remember every single analyst because I was surprised that this happened picked Shawn and now now I feel like everybody is picking Morab do do you get that sense and why are we just being reactionary like that stands out to me and clearly it kind of does to you too was it very surprising that everybody picked Shawn in the first fight considering the matchup right it’s easy to fall in love with the the shiny superstar that is Shawn Ali but when you looked within the numbers especially back then what you saw is kind of what most grapplers would have expected um but now Shaun Ali’s made some changes shaun Ali’s healthy we didn’t know he wasn’t healthy the first time we know he’s healthy now we’ve seen him wrestle we’ve seen him grappling so now I would expect people to be more cuz he didn’t win the last time but he had moments and he was able to defend takedowns and if that was all happening while he was hurt you would expect him to compete better this weekend question is is he going to compete good enough to beat Morabdalis Willie yeah man i feel like had they done this uh re rematch immediately and there was no Umar and Nurmagamea fight I do think a lot of people would be picking Shawn but I think people are like “Dang when Morab beat Umar that that took him to another level and now he is the guy to beat right?” I I feel like that’s how a lot of people feel going well honestly I think Morab is is knocking on the door of becoming the greatest banterweight of all time i know that we and that might be reactionary but if he defends his belt that’ll be two title defenses aljo defe defended it what three times it’s not like there’s a long list of guys that have defended the belt many times and you look at these last ones Shauna Ali Umar you start looking down the line and these are the two that match up the best against him yeah so we’re getting the best fight right now in the banterweight division available because Cory Sanhagen could potentially be a problem down the line we just don’t know when that would come to fruition but there’s not many people that up and coming i mean Patchy Mix now making his debut but he’s been in the game for a while morav matches up well with everyone in the division you thought Umar was the guy there were stories that Umar was the guy he was avoiding and he went out there and he beat him yeah so he’s a stud man he really is a stud he’s a stud and and what I I I really do genuinely love this fight because Morab is a stud i think the Umar fight like just put him in this different tier in a lot of people’s minds including myself and then Shawn sometimes we talk about stuff and we’re like like how much does this really matter i actually believe that the changes that Sean has made I mean the guy stopped smoking weeds six months ago he’s he’s he’s off social media and some of that’s like okay maybe that’s like like little things no I think that you’re even just being around him he’s a different human being this week different human being and I just spoke to him and Rob both and I told Rob take credit for changing things because people now recognize this guy’s different i interviewed Morab the Sunday after he beat Shawn and he was running yeah i think these guys now understand for me to beat him I’ve got to be better and so I’ve got to eliminate all the distractions and if Shawn Ali was who he was with the the smoking and living the big life the party how could he be how much better can he be now that all that is gone yeah so yes it I love this fight because I think we get a better Shauna Ali on Saturday i do because of everything that he’s eliminated in his life he had a new son just recently the guy’s life is in order he seems ready to go and try to beat Moral and obviously he was he was he looked great before that i mean let’s not forget how how we were the reason that everybody was I think that all the analysts picked him the first time around was because he was looking so good but with all the smoking in the party and the living the life he goes he barely travels now yeah yeah at that top top level 99% is not 100% that one last percent matters so I’m I’m I’m very curious to see how how that looks inside the octagon let’s talk about the co-main event i think we kind of all knew that Kayla Harrison it was just a matter of time now it finally is here i think a lot of us because we’ve been waiting for it for so long maybe Juliana’s getting a little overlooked she got overlooked once before against Amanda Nunez and we know what happened what What are your thoughts on this fight as we as we get so close so I’ve been doing my check-ins talking to these athletes juliana is um pissed as she usually is i was going to say she kind of is always Kayla Harrison’s laidback but understands that this is a big challenge never letting the pressure of the expectation get to her she knows I am who I am i’ve done what I’ve done none of the outside noise can get me juliana’s mad though she feels disrespected she said that and I don’t know if this is true she said she’s a six to one dog i don’t know i haven’t checked the She said she’s a six to one dog and that pisses her off yeah she wants to go out there and show Kayla Harrison another level of mixed martial arts it’s going to be fun i told them I said “You guys missed an opportunity for you to call Kayla back to the ring after she after you won your belt could have yelled at her she could have ran back there like the ultimate warrior could you imagine if Kayla ran from the octagon back to the octagon from the locker room it would have been amazing.” I go but people are still excited because it’s such a big fight and very rarely do you get a fight especially on the female side that you don’t necessarily need all the extra to appreciate how big the fight is this is one of them this is one of them and but I also think that it’s it’s kind of wild because come fight night if Amanda Nunes is sitting front row which I don’t I haven’t been told one way or another I believe that she will be there she was at the press conference with these two that’s going to take on a whole other conversation right there of just her being there but Chale said something on our show and Chill says a lot of things at times i think he’s joking but he said something that makes sense he goes “You don’t get better at something by not doing it.” Amanda hasn’t done it for probably two years now mhm she hasn’t done it so we love because it’s her name but what are we basing our expectation on what we saw before she hasn’t done it these two have done it so when Amanda comes back if she doesn’t she might be there this weekend i would expect the winner to be favored over her because again she hasn’t done it yeah yeah i think that’s totally fair we’re going to wrap up here in Morstown but one final question for you what other fight are you looking forward to the most i mean I think the Pyer Gaston thing is pretty interesting the way that they were supposed to fight in Mexico obviously Vicente and Kevin Holland that’s a big bonus bonus material there i think it’s going to be a fun fight patchy Mix i I I figured that’s I’m excited about Patchy Mix i want to see for so long they’ve told us this guy is the guy yeah let’s go see it yeah we got some dudes now coming into the in the UFC and they’re they’re they’re getting hard fights they’re getting some fights man aaron Pico’s getting a hard fight against Mosar patchy Mix gets a hard fight this weekend it’s like they’re getting hard fights for so long you’ve told us these guys are the guys let’s find out I think this kid I think he’s good though i can’t wait i think the the main card is absolutely fire the main event both those guys just coming in I think better than they were even the last time we saw them so should be a really really fun week and then a great fight night on Saturday stay tuned to the ESPN MMA YouTube channel we’ll have content for you all week [Applause] [Music]

Daniel Cormier and Brett Okamoto preview UFC 316 in Newark, New Jersey, headlined by Merab Dvalishvili vs. Sean O’Malley as the main event and Julianna Peña vs. Kayla Harrison as the co-main event.

Stream UFC 316 on ESPN+ https://plus.espn.com/ufc/316

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