The main event of UFC 306 last night was a rather strange one, with Sean O’Malley being warned by the referee for hooking Merab Dvalishvili’s gloves in the scramble and the two even swinging at each other after sharing a little kiss.
Yet the strangest incident of the fight happened less than 20 seconds into the very first round, with Merab Dvalishvili trying to stop his fight with the UFC bantamweight champion and start one with his corner team instead.
Why Merab Dvalishvili stopped fighting Sean O’Malley in round one
Just 10 seconds into the opening round of the Noche UFC main event, Merab Dvalishvili began moving away from Sean O’Malley, pointing to the champion’s corner and yelling at Herb Dean.
As the referee intervened, even the commentary team was confused as to why the bantamweight title fight had been halted so early into the contest, with Joe Rogan even suggesting that Dvalishvili had entered the biggest fight of his life without a mouthpiece.
The referee called a time-out to offer a stern warning to Dvalishvili not to engage with the corner of O’Malley, who were suspected to be yelling at the Georgian fighter in order to distract him from Suga’s striking attempts.
Speaking at the post-fight press conference, Dvalishvili confirmed that he was trying to get the referee to get O’Malley’s team, and specifically coach Tim Welch, from giving him unsolicited advice.
“I was in there and I’m fighting, I’m a professional fighter so I am focused [on the fight], and that never happened to me [before], I never pay attention to other corner, but Tim’s voice was very familiar because he was doing the same thing to Aljo.
“There’s a video clip on social media, everybody already saw that, but he was doing the same thing. Like he was doing [this in a] very disrespectful way – ‘Merab you got to go’, he was talking s*** to me and I tell him stop it, and nobody was telling him to stop, he just kept doing this.”
For context, shortly after Sean O’Malley knocked out Aljamain Sterling to claim the title in August 2023, a video surfaced online showing coach Welch telling Sterling to move forward; which he did, and right into the counter-right of ‘Suga’, i.e., the finishing sequence.
“If you do that same thing in basketball or soccer, they will disqualify you, but I guess here not,” continued Dvalishvili, who noted that he was quick to apologize to Herb Dean over the incident.
“I told the referee I’m sorry, and afterwards I guess he stopped it because I still heard some stuff, but I don’t care.”
So, what about the other bizarre moment; when Dvalishvili appeared to kiss Sean O’Malley’s back, only for the flashy American to throw a punch after the sound of the bell?
“I grabbed his neck, and he has 10 seconds left, I know he can wait and he’s not going to go to sleep or tap to this [choke] and I want to make a little fun of him.
“I don’t hate the guy, just make fun of him – give him a little kiss like to show them that I dominate, I control this fight, I break you, that’s why I was kissing.”
The newly crowned bantamweight champion noted that “I had a bit too much fun there,” as he lost track of how long was left in the round: “I let go and he follow me and punch me at the back of my head – I said sorry referee [again], I’m sorry.”
With the decision win at UFC 306, Merab Dvalishvili improves to 18-4 as a professional.