Sean O'Malley's coach, Tim Welch, broke his silence on the controversial moment between him and Merab Dvalishvili seconds into the main event of Noche UFC 306 last weekend.
Right after the opening bell, Dvalishvili called referee Herb Dean's attention and pointed to O'Malley's corner, putting a momentary halt to the action. As it turned out, Welch said something to the Georgian fighter that seemed to have upset him, prompting Dean to warn the coach for "excessive coaching".
In a recent video, Welch officially cleared the air as to what truly transpired between him and the newly-crowned UFC bantamweight champion, saying:
"First round, [Dvalishvili] comes out, and what I said to Merab was 'Merab, you need to be patient.' And that's when he freaked out. Started bucking himself around. And I was like, holy cow I just said 'Merab, be patient'. He must have been anticipating that a little bit, but I really wasn't going of my way to 'blah blah blah' yell but I did say that and I guess there is an excessive coaching."
Welch continued:
"But I told Herb Dean, I said, 'some of our call-outs have Merab's name in it'. And he said nope, nope, nope. nope, nope. So that ended but I was surprised [at] how much he freaked out. He let his emotions get to him in there but, didn't do anything. Didn't matter one bit."
Check out Tim Welch's comments below(1:55):
Tim Welch on Merab Dvalishvili's win over Sean O'Malley: "He did a good job at hiding his shots"
Merab Dvalishvili ended up defeating Sean O'Malley for the UFC bantamweight throne in a dominant unanimous decision win. The Georgian fighter's wrestling-heavy attacks proved too much to handle as O'Malley couldn't seem to get his striking rhythm throughout the fight.
Speaking about Dvalishvili's performance, Welch said:
"We knew how good that guy [Dvalishvili] was and he did a good job at hiding his shots. He would change levels with his shots, he would change levels with his eyes. First two minutes around each round , like I said, I'd have to watch it again, but he kind of bounced around, not really do a ton, and then he'd shoot into a double. He usually don't shoot into double-legs, which caught us off guard a little bit." [2:36]
Welch then cited Dvalishvili's speed with which he drives into his penetrating shots that gave O'Malley little space to react and stop the takedowns. Despite the perceived animosity between him and Dvalishvili, the MMA coach is all respect for the performance of the new champion.