Sean O’Malley’s longtime coach, Tim Welch, busted out a brand new excuse for his fighter’s embarrassing loss against Merab Dvalishvili last year.
Emanating from the Sphere in Las Vegas, UFC 306 was headlined by a bantamweight title tilt between O’Malley, the defending champion, and the top-ranked Dvalishvili. ‘The Machine’ dominated O’Malley for the entire 25-minute affair, leaving ‘Sin City’ as the newly crowned 135-pound king.
Since then, Dvalishvili has further established himself as the best bantamweight in the world, handing Umar Nurmagomedov his first career loss at UFC 311. Meanwhile, O’Malley has been on the sidelines while recovering from a hip surgery we underwent shortly after his September scrap with ‘The Machine.’
Initially, O’Malley had “zero excuses” for the loss before revealing that he had been dealing with a hip injury before the fight. ‘Sugar’ also disagreed with the judges, suggesting that he won the first, third, and fifth rounds.
Now, mere weeks away from the pair’s mildly anticipated rematch at UFC 316, O’Malley’s coach is adding another excuse to the pile, claiming that the awkward lighting inside the Sphere contributed to his fighter’s lackluster showing.
“I rewatched the fight in slow-mo so many times. There were tons and tons of shots that barely missed by inches that would’ve completely changed the fight, and I think a lot of it had to do with The Sphere and the lighting,” Welch claimed in an interview with ESPN MMA.
“And then not only the injury, I just feel like in our lives that was supposed to happen. It really caused us to truly level up as humans, and looking back, it was really good for us.”
Tim Welch dubs Dvalishvili the ‘Best Bantamweight ever’
Despite the bevy of excuses, Welch was quick to praise Dvalishvili’s skills, dubbing the Georgian the best bantamweight of all time.
“I don’t really know how you debate that Merab’s not the best of all time just look at his record, has there ever been a bantamweight who’s beat that many champions in a row, I don’t think there has. It’s pretty easy to say that Merab’s the best bantamweight ever,” Welch admitted.
O’Malley will get another crack at Dvalishvili on June 7 when the promotion heads back to the Prudential Center in New Jersey with two title tilts in tow. In addition to ‘Sugar’ vs. ‘The Machine,’ fans will see Julianna Pena put her women’s bantamweight strap on the line against two-time Olympic gold medalist and two-time PFL champion, Kayla Harrison.
