Bantamweight champion Sean O’Malley and his coach, Tim Welch, seem to be at loggerheads with Merab Dvalishvili. O’Malley recently defended his title at UFC 299 against Marlon Vera, and he is scheduled to fight Merab at UFC 306 on September 14.
Ahead of the match, the two fighters have exchanged words and barbs both on the line and in person. The two camps have been at each other’s throats most recently. There was a heated exchange in which Dvalishvili threatened to fight Welch in the streets. Welch, in turn, responded to this comment in a recent interview with Submission Radio.
“Initially, I thought it was because I said we’re going to target his nose in an interview, which isn’t a lie,” Welch said. “I mean, it’s not a lie. I’ve never really said fighting words to those guys. But then Merab tweeted out and said, ‘Next time I see you, I’m going to take care of it,’ or something. And it’s like, come on, brother. I haven’t trained martial arts my whole life for a little 5-foot-4 guy to try to punk me out. I’ve trained my whole life, and I’m only 34 years old. I’m six foot, 195 pounds. It’s like, alright, alright, well, we’ll see what happens.
“But that’s that’s beside the point. This is a huge fight. We got the No. 1 contender versus the champion of the world. That fight is going to happen 100 per cent. ‘Sugar Show’ versus Merab, and we’re preparing, and we’re more dialed in than we’ve ever been because Merab does pose a serious, serious threat.”
Although Welch acknowledges Merab as a worthy opponent he believes O’Malley is fully capable of defeating him and has claimed his team will not cower if a problem arose during UFC 2306
“It’s probably not smart for Merab to do that [on] fight week. Maybe after the fight,” Welch said. “You got the biggest fight of your life, and you’ve got the opportunity to get a world championship. So, fight week, stepping into my face is probably not smart. You’ve got a fight ahead of you that you’ll get paid for, so taking on me is not very smart. But we’ll see what happens. If they think our team is going to cower down to their team like [Henry] Cejudo’s team did, then they’re going to be wrong. They’re wrong about that.”
O’Malley’s former opponent, Sterling, has criticised Welch for talking down on opponents. However, Welch has attributed it to Sterling and his team being sore after being beaten by O’Malley.
“I think they’re still bitter,” Welch said. “They let the little curly-haired, funny guy who makes all these videos, who has tattoos on his face — Sean flat-lined [Sterling]. Sean punched him and dropped bombs on him, forced him to turtle up. You’ve got this world championship on the line, and you’re fighting the ‘Sugar Show,’ I’m glad you were thinking about fighting me and not the fight you are in.”
The tension in both camps has been quite palpable, and both highly active coaches have been involved in the crossfire. Although there hasn’t been any physical altercation yet, fans are looking forward to seeing both opponents battle it out in the cage at UFC 306.
