Sean O’Malley has been bringing in some specialist help from two iconic former UFC champions.
O’Malley is set to face Merab Dvalishvili in the main event of UFC 316 where he will look to reclaim the bantamweight title.
Ahead of June 7, videos posted on social media have shown ‘Suga’ and his coach, Tim Welch, picking the brains of two incredibly successful fighters.
The first former champion to stop by was ‘The Last Stylebender’ with Israel Adesanya sharing the cage with O’Malley and hitting pads.
After this visit, a second legendary competitor also made the trip over with both O’Malley and Welch getting some work in with Demetrious Johnson.
- READ MORE: ‘Man, this kid…’ Charles Oliveira’s rare submission against TUF winner made Joe Rogan take notice
Sean O’Malley and Tim Welch praise Demetrious Johnson when reflecting on training session
On the latest episode of the Red Hawk Recap, Sean O’Malley and Tim Welch both reflected on their experiences of training with Demetrious Johnson.
‘Suga’ was incredibly impressed by ‘Mighty Mouse’, having come away from the session with confidence that the retired 38-year-old could still compete at the highest level.
“It felt like kind of what I expected, even more though. His speed and just like athleticism and yeah, that was cool. It was very different than Israel Adesanya, completely different… Obviously, he’s one of the greatest of all time and you watch him fight someone and you could realize that but then him being in front of you, you’re like yep, okay, that makes sense.”
O’Malley made reference to how Johnson dismantled Henry Cejudo at UFC 197 in one of the finest performances of his historic flyweight title reign.
The champion has always been incredibly well-rounded but it was his technique and knees in the clinch which secured that particular victory.
Welch highlighted this when speaking about what he was able to learn from Johnson, who is known to be one of the best minds in the sport.
“Dude, it was so sweet. I learned a bunch from him just in the clinch. He pressures you so hard, forces you to reach out for him, to reach out and grab him, and as soon as you reach out and grab him, he just rifles those knees up the middle.
“That’s one thing that really surprised me is just when I grabbed a hold of him. I was asking him some questions in the clinch and he was just like moving around, doing these different things. I’m like f—, he’s like a black belt in the clinch.”
Demetrious Johnson didn’t retire because he could no longer compete with the best
In Demetrious Johnson’s final two fights, he produced two stellar performances to reclaim and defend the ONE flyweight world championship.
‘Mighty Mouse’ recorded the best knockout win of his career to avenge his loss to Adriano Moraes only to close out their trilogy with a clinical performance in 2023 which showed how great he was in the clinch.
Johnson was called out by UFC flyweight champion Alexandre Pantoja at the end of last year but that only led to him confirming that he isn’t going to fight again.
Instead, the former UFC champion is currently focused on competing in Jiu-Jitsu and producing content on his YouTube channel.