Former UFC Bantamweight Champion Sean O’Malley had revealed that he has stopped smoking weed ahead of his UFC 316 rematch with Merab Dvalishvili.
‘Suga’ aims to win back the UFC Bantamweight Title, which he lost to Dvalishvili at UFC 306 last September at the Sphere.
Sean O’Malley Reveals He Has Quit Smoking Weed
Ahead of his rematch with Merab Dvalishvili at UFC 316, former bantamweight champion Sean O’Malley has revealed he has quit smoking weed.
‘Suga’ has made no secret of the fact that he enjoys smoking marijuana from time to time, but has stopped smoking weed for the past few months as he prepares for the biggest fight of his life.
O’Malley has pulled out all the stops ahead of his rematch with Dvalishvili. He has been training with the likes of Israel Adesanya and Demetrius Johnson, as well as coming off social media.
The biggest change that O’Malley has made however is quitting smoking weed.
In his early days in the UFC, O’Malley was smoking weed with Snoop Dogg and has always been a huge supporting of marijuana. Being a supporter of smoking weed hasn’t changed, but O’Malley has revealed that he hasn’t smoked weed at all in 2025.
He has said that this isn’t solely down to his fight with Merab Dvalishvili, who has broken his silence on his reported toe injury, but that he wanted to make some lifestyle changes across the board.
In his recent interview with Jim Rome, O’Malley revealed that he has been taking a weed detox this year, as well as not spending any time on social media:
“I don’t think I’ve even smoked this year. I’m not done smoking weed forever. I definitely enjoy it, but it was kind of just giving me this anxiety I didn’t really want.
I don’t know if it was a mixture between the social media and then smoking, it was just something in me was saying, ‘Hey, let’s take a [break]. We’re stopping social media, we’re stopping this, we’re stopping that, let’s take a little break from it.’ And that also feels really good,” admitted O’Malley.
Sean O’Malley Feels Better Than Ever Ahead Of Merab Dvalishvili Rematch At UFC 316
As well as quitting smoking weed, Sean O’Malley has also revealed that he has had a complete social media detox ahead of his UFC 316 rematch with Merab Dvalishvili.
‘Suga’ has cleansed some of his habits in order to give him the best chance of becoming a two-time UFC Bantamweight Champion. Stopping smoking weed and coming off social media are the two main lifestyle changes the American MMA phenom has made.
In his chat with Jim Rome on Wednesday, May 28, O’Malley admitted that he feels so much better having come off social media and done a complete detox for the entirety of the year so far:
“There are not a whole lot of things you can probably say are ‘life-changing’ but I would say me getting off of my social media – they’re still running, we’re still making content, I still have a team doing that stuff – but for me to actually not get on my phone, get on Instagram, get on Snapchat, get on Twitter, engage with the virtual reality every single day, hours a day, has completely changed my life in a positive way,” said the former 135-pound king.
The 30-year-old has admitted that he feels better than ever heading into his rematch with Dvalishvili. Whether or not these changes will make a different to the outcome of their second fight remains to be seen.
"For me actually looking at comments, posting stuff, surfing, scrolling, all that… Not being part of that has been life changing."@SugaSeanMMA has stuck to his "life changing" social media detox dating back to September. pic.twitter.com/ihE1Ki9Hgv
— Jim Rome (@jimrome) May 29, 2025
When Is Sean O’Malley’s Rematch With Merab Dvalishvili?
Sean O’Malley embarks on his highly-anticipated rematch with Merab Dvalishvili in just a couple weeks time.
Dvalishvili vs O’Malley 2 headlines the next UFC pay-per-view event at the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey. The fight is the main event of UFC 316, which goes down on Saturday, June 6.
These lifestyle changes that O’Malley has made may well benefit him inside the octagon when it comes to fight night. Although ‘Suga’ has made so many changes, one thing about him hasn’t changed at all – his confidence.
“I know I can beat Merab,” O’Malley said.
“He’s open to getting knocked out. I’m very confident that I can put his lights out. I’m also confident I can beat him in a five-round fight. There’s definitely a possibility of me putting his lights out, but I’m ready to go for 25 minutes. I’m ready to have to dig deep.”
It isn’t long now until the Merab Dvalishvili vs Sean O’Malley rematch headlines UFC 316 for the UFC Bantamweight Title. What a fight this could be in what is the Dana White’s next UFC PPV event on June 6.
