Sean O’Malley and Merab Dvalishvili beef, UFC cuts 7 fighters & Conor McGregor gets driving ban

I'll be breaking down the news from around the combat sports world and giving you my take on it in this new daily column. Check back every morning to see the biggest or most obscure headlines and what I think about them below.

Sean O’Malley and Merab Dvalishvili exchange words during first face-off

Sean O'Malley and Merab Dvalishvili trade verbal jabs over O'Malley's coach, Tim Simpson. “If you have a problem with him, you can take it up with him,” O’Malley said. “He’ll fight you, if that’s what you want. … You want to die? That’s what you’re saying? He’ll kill you.”

It's interesting that there's more stuff going on behind the scenes that's making this fight a big potential blow out. We already know about the beef stemming from the Aljamain Sterling connection plus the stolen jacket gag. But now there's a new element we were not aware of in terms of O'Malley's coach. This is going to be a huge build up to an insane fight week. I'm getting so excited just thinking about it.

The UFC made a roster purge after UFC 304

The names of seven UFC fighters either released from their contracts or not re-signed leaked on social media. Those removed were: Emily Ducote, Miguel Baeza, Muhammad Mokaev, Lucie Pudilova, Josh Quinlan, Sergey Morozov, and Mariya Agapova.

Some of these names are not shocking at all and probably deserved the boot a while ago. Mokaev is the biggest shocker but we've covered that already. The UFC is probably looking to make room for the fighters they plan to

Conor McGregor gets driving ban following reckless driving incident

In 2022 Conor McGregor was arrested for dangerous driving and the court case has finally been decided. Instead of jail time, he will be banned from driving for two years., per the Irish Mirror.

Honestly this isn't going to affect McGregor's life in the least. He spends most of his time on his yacht and the other time he usually has a driver anyway. And I don't think a ban from driving is going to keep McGregor from going behind the wheel anyway.