The UFC 306 main event this past Saturday between Sean O’Malley and Merab Dvalishvili got off to a very strange start when the fight was momentarily stopped because of an interaction between Dvalishvili and O’Malley’s head coach, Tim Welch.
Throughout the entire build-up of Sean O’Malley‘s fight against Merab Dvalishvili, the Georgian has had an ongoing feud with Tim Welch, O’Malley’s head cornerman.
At one point, ‘The Machine’ claimed that he was going to ‘slap’ Welch for comments he made about Dvalishvili’s nose and for spreading misinformation regarding a personal relationship.
Tim Welch reveals what he shouted to Merab Dvalishvili moments before stoppage
Shortly after ‘Suga’ won the title from Aljamain Sterling last August, video footage surfaced of Welch shouting corner advice to ‘Funkmaster’.
In the video, Welch shouts, “You’ve got to go Aljo,” and then Sterling attempts to close distance and gets clipped with the counter shot that marked the beginning of the end of his title reign.
The clip caused a lot of controversy once it made its way to social media, however, Sterling claimed that he didn’t hear Welch’s comment.
In the first few minutes of the UFC 306 main event, referee Herb Dean called a stop to the action after Dvalishvili started frantically shouting at the corner of O’Malley.
Dean proceeded to give Welch a warning for ‘Excessive Coaching’, which is, in fact, an official rule.
Since then, ‘The Red Fox’ has revealed what he said to ‘The Machine’ to result in the fight being momentarily halted.
- ALTERCATION: Brian Ortega barged past security to confront a fan moments after losing to Diego Lopes at UFC 306
“That caught me off guard (Merab screaming at me). I sat down and was really calm and said, ‘You’ve got to be patient Merab’. And then he starts bucking around almost having a seizure,” Welch explained on the recent episode of The Timbo and Sugar Show.
“So, I didn’t know there was a rule that if you have a callout it can’t be the other guy’s name. I told Herb, I said some of our calls have Merab’s name in it and he’s like, ‘Nope, no’, I’m like, didn’t know that I would love to see that f*cking rule,” Welch added.
Sean O’Malley explains the situation of Dvalishvili kissing his back
After an eventful opening round, things got even weirder in round two when at the end of the round, Dvalishvili had O’Malley in a guillotine control and began to kiss his back.
Herb Dean once again warned Dvalishvili of his antics and for some reason, the Georgian released his grip, stood up, and began to walk away with three seconds left on the clock.
‘Suga’ quickly jumped up and landed two punches on Merab as his back was turned, which was completely legal as there was still time remaining on the clock.
“And then he was kissing me, there was like two or three seconds left on the time, and looking back on it, I was surprised that I even knew that, and the ref was like ‘Hey quit kissing him on the back’ so he got up thinking the time was up.
“So I went and juiced him once, I was hoping I’d put him out. But Aljo got up like he was about to f*cking storm the cage like I f*cking hit him illegally. I don’t think he even realized there was time on the clock,” O’Malley explained.