Coach Tim Welch has received plenty of criticism for how he handled Sean O'Malley’s corner at UFC 306.
O’Malley (18-2 MMA, 10-2 UFC) lost his bantamweight title by unanimous decision to Merab Dvalishvili (18-4 MMA, 11-2 UFC) in this past Saturday’s main event at Sphere in Las Vegas. Dvalishvili’s coach, UFC Hall of Famer Matt Serra, thinks Welch showed no sense of urgency with his fighter being down big in the final five minutes of the fight. Welch addressed the backlash and clarified what he meant when he was heard telling O’Malley “we are almost done with this” in the fifth round.
“It came out the wrong way. I meant to say ‘we’re almost done with this,’ like ‘you’re going to clip him at any time,'” Welch told ESPN. “But also, I’ve known Sean for 12 years. I know what’s going through his mind and keeping him confident. I always forget those cameras are rolling on my mic and stuff. I want to keep his head in it. It sounded way worse than it actually was. I just meant to say, ‘This fight is almost over. We’re almost done with this, you can clip him at any point.’ But it came out the wrong way and sounded stupid.”
