One of the strangest things that happened in an Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) fight last year occurred during the main event of UFC 306 between Sean O’Malley and Merab Dvalishvili.
Ten seconds into the first round of their UFC Bantamweight title fight, which took place inside the super cool Sphere, Dvalishvili started to point and talk to O’Malley’s coach, Tim Welch, while circling the cage, causing referee Herb Dean to step in and pause the action.
Up until today (Jan. 9, 2025), no one knew what Welch was telling Dvalishvili, but now we do, thanks to a clip that UFC released on their YouTube channel.
Meraby, you might need to be patient, bud,” Welch told Dvalishvili. The referee then told “The Machine,” “Don’t talk to him. That’s my job.”
Watch the clip below:
UFC just dropped the audio of Sean O’Malley’s coach trying to mess with Merab pic.twitter.com/7gO51Huiow
— Happy Punch (@HappyPunch) January 9, 2025
Dvalishvili’s teammate Aljamain Sterling even jumped into the confrontation by yelling, “Herb! He’s talking to him!”
If you recall, a similar video popped up online last year showing Welch pretending to be Sterling’s cornerman during his title fight with O’Malley, leading to Sterling’s knockout loss.
Unfortunately for Welch, his tricks didn’t work the same way on Dvalishvili because he went on to maul O’Malley for five rounds to win the UFC Bantamweight strap.
Thankfully, “The Machine” won’t have to deal with this nonsense for his first title defense next week at UFC 311 against Umar Nurmagomedov.
Well…maybe just this
Not going to lie, I’m going to miss Khabib screaming at his fighters in the corner during fights pic.twitter.com/gpv0M8MxrY
— Jason Williams (@jasoneg33) January 27, 2023