UFC 316 main event predicted by fighter who has shared the Octagon with Merab Dvalishvili and Sean O’Malley

Terrion Ware predicts the UFC 316 main event

Terrion Ware fought both of the UFC 316 headliners during his 0-4 run in MMA’s premier promotion.

The 31-year-old suffered a unanimous decision defeat when he welcomed O’Malley to the UFC in December 2017 – but he was able to win a round against the future bantamweight champion.

Nine months later, Ware was utterly outclassed as he fell to another loss after 15 minutes of fighting with Dvalishvili, who picked up rarely-seen 30-25 scorecards from all three of the judges cageside at UFC Moscow.

After spending a combined 30 minutes in the Octagon with Dvalishvili and O’Malley, ‘Flash’ is better placed than most to predict what will happen when the rivals rematch during the latest UFC pay-per-view event.

“MMA is really, really hard to predict,” Ware told talkSPORT.com.

“A lot of times you can kind of go off history. History has shown that when you have the striker versus the grappler, and the grappler is able to do what Merab did in the first fight…

“I don’t think enough time has passed where O’Malley is going to be able to close that gap and completely shut down his wrestling game and stop him.

“I think [O’Malley] will definitely do better, I definitely think he will hurt Merab once or twice in this fight. But my prediction, I think the same thing’s going to happen.

“It’s going to be a closer fight. I got it 48-47, Merab winning by decision, just basically going out there and trying to grind him on the cage. And taking him down.”

UFC 316 headliners clash at press conference

On Thursday, the stars of UFC 316 gathered for a press conference, which was hosted by commentator Jon Anik.

It was a rather dull affair that was momentarily sparked into life by O’Malley talking trash.

“I truly believe I’m going to knock Merab out,” he said.

“Come Sunday, no one is going to give a f— about Merab, and that’s just is what it is.”

The comment angered Dvalishvili, who accused his opponent of pretending to be humble in the lead-up to their rematch.

He replied: “Keep talking and you’re going to get more humble. I’m making people humble!

“You’ll see June 7. Yeah, you were playing all of this time like a humble guy, okay, I’ll show you again.”