Tim Welch reveals what he told Merab Dvalishvili at the beginning of the fight:
“What I said to Merab was ‘Merab you need to be patient’, and that’s when he freaked out.”
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Tim Welch recently revealed what he told Merab Dvalishvili to evoke an unprecedented reaction at the beginning of his UFC 306 title fight against Sean O’Malley.
Dvalishvili challenged Welch’s longtime friend and pupil O’Malley in the main event at UFC 306 on Sept. 14 at the Sphere in Las Vegas. The opening seconds of the fight had a bizarre sequence, as Dvalishvili stopped fighting while frantically pointing at Welch in O’Malley’s corner.
Referee Herb Dean sternly admonished Dvalishvili for stopping the fight while also issuing Welch a warning for excessive coaching. Dvalishvili’s reaction was not completely unjustified considering Welch’s history of coaching his pupil’s opponents. Welch was heard telling Dvalishvili’s friend Aljamain Sterling, “Aljo, you gotta go,” moments before “Funkmaster” was knocked out by O’Malley in their title fight at UFC 292 last year. The newly-crowned Georgian champ also had a lot of bad blood, specifically with Welch, in the lead-up to his UFC 306 clash against O’Malley.
Welch recently revealed what he told Dvalishvili to incite that frantic response. The coach claims to have told Dvalishvili, who is known for relentless pressure, to be patient. Welch believes his words had “The Machine” overflowing with emotions. However, the former fighter admits that it didn’t matter in the least, as Dvalishvili went on to ragdoll O’Malley for five rounds to earn a unanimous decision victory.
“What I said to Merab [Dvalishvili] was, ‘Merab you need to be patient.’ And that’s when he freaked out,’ Welch said on his YouTube channel. “He starts bucking himself around. I was like, ‘Holy cow, I just Merab be patient.’ He must have been anticipating that a little bit. But I really wasn’t going out of my way, ‘blah blah blah blah,’ yell. But I did say that. I guess there is an excessive coaching [rule], but I told Herb Dean, some of our calls have Merab’s name in it. And he said, ‘Nope nope nope nope.’ But I was surprised how much he freaked out. He let his emotions freaking get to him in there. But didn’t do anything, didn’t matter one bit. Like I said, we knew how good this guy was.”
