Tim Welch admits he’s also heard rumors of Marlon Vera having a poor training camp, but it won’t make a difference to O’Malley’s mindset.
Earlier this week, Aljamain Sterling sparked rumors that ‘Chito’ had a less-than-ideal training camp for his world title shot for UFC 299, and those rumors have been doing the rounds not just online, but in Miami.
As Tim Welch explained to Submission Radio, whilst he’s also heard separate stories of sparring partners “beating up” Marlon Vera through the MMA grapevine, O’Malley will be as dialed in as he’s ever been when the cage door locks behind him.
Coach Tim Welch responds to Marlon Vera fight camp rumors
Marlon Vera is a sizable underdog heading into UFC 299 with reports circulating online that the veteran hasn’t had the best preparation for his bantamweight title fight against Sean O’Malley this weekend.
Speaking to the Submission Radio team, O’Malley’s coach Tim Welch has admitted that he’s also heard rumors of Vera having a tough camp: “I have heard that, and I’ve heard of other people that were sparring him that were beating him up, but really none of that matters.”
The veteran trainer, who guided O’Malley to a decisive round-two KO last August, clarified that “what matters is that 25 minutes on that day that we show up at our sharpest.”
“We had a terrible training camp against Aljo and then we went out and knocked him out so that kind of stuff doesn’t matter. It’s not like we’re not going to try harder or any less.”
Ignoring online speculation will be the point of call for Welch, O’Malley, and the rest of the team, especially since the whole situation might have been a ploy to lower the guard of the current bantamweight king.
As former UFC middleweight champion Michael Bisping shared on his YouTube channel, the feeling inside the Vera camp is instead one of optimism and violent excitement:
“I was talking to [Jason] Parillo last night and I’m like ‘Have you seen this, have you seen what Aljamain Sterling has been saying, did he have a bad camp.’ Parillo was laughing his head off. He’s like ‘no, [Chito] didn’t have a bad camp’, in fact he sent me some of the footage.”
According to ‘The Count’, Vera is “looking like a nasty b*******” and noting that the fan-favorite Ecuadorian has been “knocking people out in training” on a routine basis.
Sean O’Malley vs Marlon Vera 2 goes down this weekend in the main event of UFC 299.