Merab Dvalishvili already convincingly beat Sean O’Malley. But if they fight again, Dvalishvili is confident he can do even better. It took five rounds for Dvalishvili to best O’Malley and win the bantamweight championship this past September at UFC 306.

UFC bantamweight champion Merab Dvalishvili is opening up on his plans to return to the octagon, just a month after his title win.

Nurmagomedov (18-0 MMA, 6-0 UFC) emerged as No. 1 contender after outlasting Cory Sandhagen in the UFC on ABC 7 main event in August. A month later, Dvalishvili (18-4 MMA, 11-2 UFC) dethroned O’Malley to become bantamweight champion at UFC 306.

"I'm not mad [at O'Malley thinking he won]," he continued. "I want him to promote this and I want more people to believe this and I want to fight him. Like I tell you, I will not kiss him this time. I will try [not to] because I like him. This time, I will finish him. I'm not going to listen to Herb Dean and I will go for a finish."