Tim Welch revealed what he said to Merab Dvalishvili at the start of the match.
“What I told Merab was, ‘Merab, you have to hold on.’ That’s when he panicked.”
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September 16, 2024
Tim Welch recently revealed what he said to Merab Dvalishvili at the start of his title fight against Sean O’Malley at UFC 306 to provoke an unprecedented reaction.
Dvalishvili challenged O’Malley, Welch’s longtime friend and protĂ©gĂ©, in the main event of UFC 306 at the Sphere in Las Vegas on Sept. 14. The fight had a bizarre start, with Dvalishvili frantically pointing at Welch in O’Malley’s corner before stopping the fight.
Referee Herb Dean severely reprimanded Dvalishvili for stopping the bout and also warned Welch for excessive coaching. Dvalishvili’s reaction was not entirely unjustified, given Welch’s history of coaching his protĂ©gĂ©s’ opponents. “Arjo, you’ve got to go,” Welch could be heard telling Dvalishvili’s friend Aljamain Sterling right before “The Funk Master” was knocked out by O’Malley in their title fight at UFC 292 last year. The newly minted Georgian champion had quite a feud with Welch in particular ahead of his UFC 306 bout with O’Malley.
Welch recently revealed what he said to Dvalishvili to induce that frantic reaction. The coach claims he told Dvalishvili, known for applying relentless pressure, to hang in there. Welch believes his words made “The Machine” overwhelmed with emotion. But the former fighter admits it didn’t matter at all, as Dvalishvili dominated O’Malley over five rounds to earn a unanimous decision victory.
“What I told Merab [Dvalishvili] “He was told, ‘Merab, you’ve got to hold on,’ and that made him panic,” Welch said on his YouTube channel. “He started rocking and I was like, ‘Oh my God, Merab, you’ve got to hold on.’ I’m sure he expected it a little bit, but I wasn’t going out of my way to yell, ‘blah blah blah,’ but I did. I think there’s a lot of overcoaching. [rule]”But we told Herb Dean that Merab’s name was on some of our phones. And he said, ‘No, no, no, no.’ But I was surprised he was so panicked. He got carried away. But we didn’t do anything, and it was fine. Like I said, we knew how good this guy was.”
