Tag: UFC 306

“Big” John McCarthy Responds After Sean O’Malley’s Coach Pleads ‘Excessive Coaching’ Case At UFC 306

“Big” John McCarthy recently addressed Sean O’Malley’s coach after Tim Welch sought clarification on the controversial excessive coaching incident at UFC 306. Dvalishvili secured a dominant unanimous decision victory over “Suga” to capture the bantamweight title at UFC 306 earlier this month. While the outcome was unquestionably clear at the end of the day, the […]

Continue Reading “Big” John McCarthy Responds After Sean O’Malley’s Coach Pleads ‘Excessive Coaching’ Case At UFC 306 at MMA News.

“Big” John McCarthy recently addressed Sean O’Malley’s coach after Tim Welch sought clarification on the controversial excessive coaching incident at UFC 306.

Dvalishvili secured a dominant unanimous decision victory over “Suga” to capture the bantamweight title at UFC 306 earlier this month. While the outcome was unquestionably clear at the end of the day, the fight took an unusual turn just moments after it began.

“The Machine” suddenly paused mid-action, gesturing furiously toward his opponent’s corner, prompting referee Herb Dean to step in. Dean reprimanded Dvalishvili for interrupting the match and also gave Welch a warning for overstepping his coaching boundaries, citing the ‘excessive coaching’ rule.

In the days following the fight, Welch broke his silence on the controversial incident, admitting he did shout at Dvalishvili but claimed he only told him to “be patient.” He also acknowledged that some of his instructions for O’Malley included “The Machine’s” name, brushing it off as merely a case of normal coaching and insisting it had no impact on the outcome of the bout.

However, veteran referee McCarthy believes Welch’s actions crossed a line and constituted clear misconduct…

McCarthy Cautions Welch On Interference with Opponents During Fights

During a recent appearance on the WEIGHING IN podcast, Welch posed a question to McCarthy, asking how he would have handled the situation if a similar incident to UFC 306’s main event unfolded under his watch.

The renowned MMA referee responded candidly, stating that he would have swiftly issued Welch a stern warning. Furthermore, McCarthy made it clear that if the behavior persisted, he wouldn’t hesitate to eject Welch from the arena in accordance with official refereeing guidelines.

“I’m being honest, I would have talked to you in the beginning,” McCarthy said. “I would have said, ‘Hey, look, I need you to understand I cannot have you talking to the opponent in any fashion. So when you say ‘Merab, you’ve got to look out,’ even if it’s a call sign for you guys, you’re making it sound like you’re talking to the opponent. So right away, I would have said, ‘Hey, I’m telling you now, stop. We talked about this. If you do it again, I’m going to remove you from this arena,’ which I don’t want to do.”

“Obviously, that would affect your fighter and everything, so it’s the last thing you want to do. But yeah, it’s right in the rules that you can talk to Sean all you want, and we want you to be able to coach and talk to him and give him good, you know, feedback, but we cannot have you in any fashion talking to the opponent or talking to the referee during the round.”

Welch also faced significant backlash when footage surfaced from UFC 292 in August 2023, where he allegedly attempted to mislead Aljamain Sterling, trying to lure him into a reckless charge toward O’Malley.

Continue Reading “Big” John McCarthy Responds After Sean O’Malley’s Coach Pleads ‘Excessive Coaching’ Case At UFC 306 at MMA News.

“Big” John McCarthy Responds After Sean O’Malley’s Coach Pleads ‘Excessive Coaching’ Case At UFC 306

“Big” John McCarthy recently addressed Sean O’Malley’s coach after Tim Welch sought clarification on the controversial excessive coaching incident at UFC 306. Dvalishvili secured a dominant unanimous decision victory over “Suga” to capture the bantamweight title at UFC 306 earlier this month. While the outcome was unquestionably clear at the end of the day, the […]

Continue Reading “Big” John McCarthy Responds After Sean O’Malley’s Coach Pleads ‘Excessive Coaching’ Case At UFC 306 at MMA News.

“Big” John McCarthy recently addressed Sean O’Malley’s coach after Tim Welch sought clarification on the controversial excessive coaching incident at UFC 306.

Dvalishvili secured a dominant unanimous decision victory over “Suga” to capture the bantamweight title at UFC 306 earlier this month. While the outcome was unquestionably clear at the end of the day, the fight took an unusual turn just moments after it began.

“The Machine” suddenly paused mid-action, gesturing furiously toward his opponent’s corner, prompting referee Herb Dean to step in. Dean reprimanded Dvalishvili for interrupting the match and also gave Welch a warning for overstepping his coaching boundaries, citing the ‘excessive coaching’ rule.

In the days following the fight, Welch broke his silence on the controversial incident, admitting he did shout at Dvalishvili but claimed he only told him to “be patient.” He also acknowledged that some of his instructions for O’Malley included “The Machine’s” name, brushing it off as merely a case of normal coaching and insisting it had no impact on the outcome of the bout.

However, veteran referee McCarthy believes Welch’s actions crossed a line and constituted clear misconduct…

McCarthy Cautions Welch On Interference with Opponents During Fights

During a recent appearance on the WEIGHING IN podcast, Welch posed a question to McCarthy, asking how he would have handled the situation if a similar incident to UFC 306’s main event unfolded under his watch.

The renowned MMA referee responded candidly, stating that he would have swiftly issued Welch a stern warning. Furthermore, McCarthy made it clear that if the behavior persisted, he wouldn’t hesitate to eject Welch from the arena in accordance with official refereeing guidelines.

“I’m being honest, I would have talked to you in the beginning,” McCarthy said. “I would have said, ‘Hey, look, I need you to understand I cannot have you talking to the opponent in any fashion. So when you say ‘Merab, you’ve got to look out,’ even if it’s a call sign for you guys, you’re making it sound like you’re talking to the opponent. So right away, I would have said, ‘Hey, I’m telling you now, stop. We talked about this. If you do it again, I’m going to remove you from this arena,’ which I don’t want to do.”

“Obviously, that would affect your fighter and everything, so it’s the last thing you want to do. But yeah, it’s right in the rules that you can talk to Sean all you want, and we want you to be able to coach and talk to him and give him good, you know, feedback, but we cannot have you in any fashion talking to the opponent or talking to the referee during the round.”

Welch also faced significant backlash when footage surfaced from UFC 292 in August 2023, where he allegedly attempted to mislead Aljamain Sterling, trying to lure him into a reckless charge toward O’Malley.

Continue Reading “Big” John McCarthy Responds After Sean O’Malley’s Coach Pleads ‘Excessive Coaching’ Case At UFC 306 at MMA News.

Sean O’Malley’s Loss to Merab Dvalishvili Comes with a ‘Silver Lining’

Sean O'Malley's Loss to Merab Dvalishvili Comes with a 'Silver Lining'Jon Anik sees a silver lining in Sean O’Malley’s loss to Merab Dvalishvili. Returning to the Octagon at UFC…

Sean O'Malley's Loss to Merab Dvalishvili Comes with a 'Silver Lining'

Jon Anik sees a silver lining in Sean O’Malley’s loss to Merab Dvalishvili.

Returning to the Octagon at UFC 306 for his second title defense of 2024, ‘Sugar’ delivered a lackluster showing that saw his explosive offense stifled by the grapple-heavyweight attack of Dvalishvili through five rounds. In the end, ‘The Machine’ saw his hand raised, taking the bantamweight title back home to Georgia via a dominant unanimous decision.

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In the aftermath, O’Malley revealed that he suffered a torn labrum 10 weeks out from fight night, though he never disclosed the injury to the promotion. Scheduled to undergo surgery in early October, O’Malley is expected to be out of action for 6-8 months at a minimum.

Speaking with MMA Fighting’s Mike Heck, the UFC’s chief play-by-play man offered his interesting take on O’Malley’s loss, suggesting that it could be for the best on the promotion’s side of things.

“I think the good news if you’re looking for a silver lining for the UFC is that had Sean won this fight, maybe this hip injury would have had to be repaired anyway, right?” Anik said. “And then you wonder if you need an interim champion. So I think right now, your new champion is pretty durable and willing to take on all challengers.

And a murderers’ row, of course, awaits Sean O’Malley with the Cory Sandhagens of all the world and everybody else. There are a lot of dream-type matchups at ’35 for fight fans, right? Even Sean O’Malley and Dominick Cruz makes some semblance of sense right now. So there’s a lot of different fights at ’35 that make a lot of sense” (h/t MMA News).

Merab vs. Umar Up next as Sean O’Malley takes time to heal up

Though it’ll be a while until we see O’Malley back inside the Octagon, Merab Dvalishvili is already staring down the barrel of his first title defense.

All signs currently point toward ‘The Machine’ putting his newly-won bantamweight belt on the line against No. 2 ranked contender Umar Nurmagomedov not long after our calendars flip over to 2025 — assuming the Dagestani is willing to wait that long.

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T.J. Dillashaw Shocked by How ‘Weak’ Sean O’Malley Looked Against Merab Dvalishvili at UFC 306: ‘I Didn’t Expect It’

T.J. Dillashaw Shocked by How 'Weak' Sean O'Malley Looked Against Merab Dvalishvili at UFC 306: 'I Didn't Expect It'T.J. Dillashaw was impressed with Merab Dvalishvili’s performance at UFC 306. ‘The Machine’ cashed in on his first shot…

T.J. Dillashaw Shocked by How 'Weak' Sean O'Malley Looked Against Merab Dvalishvili at UFC 306: 'I Didn't Expect It'

T.J. Dillashaw was impressed with Merab Dvalishvili’s performance at UFC 306.

‘The Machine’ cashed in on his first shot at UFC gold, delivering a dominant five-round performance against ‘Sugar’ Sean O’Malley to claim the bantamweight division’s top prize.

Merab Dvalishvili

Going into the bout, the odds were fairly close with O’Malley being slightly favored to come out on top. Instead, Dvalishvili shut down the ex-champ’s offense with a barrage of smothering takedown attempts and control time. Most educated fight fans knew that Dvalishvili’s contrasting style could win the day against O’Malley, but not many expected him to be as dominant as he was.

Merab Dvalishvili

That includes Dillashaw who was surprised by how easy Dvalishvili made it all look.

“It’s not that I didn’t expect it,” Dillashaw said on the JAXXON Podcast. “I knew that it was very close on the betting odds and when I had to go and pick this fight, I knew that Merab had a chance to just pressure the f*ck out of him. The guy is the Tasmanian Devil. He never stops and continues to shoot shots.

“I knew it was a possibility, but I thought – especially after watching how O’Malley has composed himself and how well he’s done on his feet using his feints, distance, and angles – I thought he’d be able to keep that distance and control, be hard to take down and spark him. That’s what I thought could happen, as well.

“I didn’t think it was going to be this easy for Merab. Merab made him look weak – very weak” (h/t BJPenn.com).

Merab Dvalishvili Eyes title fight with Umar Nurmagomedov… maybe

What comes next for Merab Dvalishvili remains to be seen, but all signs point toward ‘The Machine’ defending his title against No. 2 ranked contender Umar Nurmagomedov — assuming the Dagestani star doesn’t grow impatient and move onto another opponent in the interim.

Truth be told, Dvalishvili isn’t even all that interested in facing Nurmagomedov considering his lack of top 15 wins, though that’s not entirely Nurmagomedov’s fault. The undefeated fighter has struggled for years to lock in opponents, but a dominant decision victory over Cory Sandhagen appears to have been enough to score him his first title shot.

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Valentina Shevchenko Says Judges Influenced Noche UFC 306 Game Plan

After what happened at last year’s Noche UFC card, Valentina Shevchenko made it perfectly clear that she wanted a trilogy fight with Alexa Grasso on neutral ground. The current UFC flyweight champion failed to reclaim her title in the second fight with Grasso after the bout was controversially scored as a draw. Shevchenko had no […]

Continue Reading Valentina Shevchenko Says Judges Influenced Noche UFC 306 Game Plan at MMA News.

After what happened at last year’s Noche UFC card, Valentina Shevchenko made it perfectly clear that she wanted a trilogy fight with Alexa Grasso on neutral ground.

The current UFC flyweight champion failed to reclaim her title in the second fight with Grasso after the bout was controversially scored as a draw.

Shevchenko had no problem stating that the result was an outcome of their fight taking place on a card that was set to celebrate Mexican Independence Day.

Though she won the belt back at UFC 306 with a dominant performance on the same exact weekend one calendar year later, the “Bullet” says that she was forced to change up her approach as a result of the location of the fight.

Valentina Shevchenko Says That She Adapted Her Game Plan To Counter Biased Judging At UFC 306

In a recent interview with MMA Fighting, Shevchenko was asked whether the fight taking place at Noche UFC once again made her nervous about the way that the judges would score the fight.

The champ went on to reveal that the setting of UFC 306 at the Sphere made her adjust her game plan in order to try and counter any potentially biased scoring.

“I knew exactly what had happened last time and now even being the bigger event, it’s like all about the culture, all about celebrating the Mexican culture and having the Mexican champion on the card, of course definitely everyone want to celebrate. Definitely I know exactly what is like how much pressure on my shoulders and I just say they don’t leave me any other choice.”

Shevchenko received some criticism for putting on a boring display in the co-main event where the majority of the fight saw her controlling Grasso with her wrestling.

She revealed that this was somewhat intentional because if the judges were going to value Grasso’s success higher than hers, her best route to victory was to shut her opponent down entirely.

“I knew going into this fight that I cannot let this happen again. I didn’t have another choice. Don’t let her have this successful combination, not even one. That’s why it was like pure, I was faster in the striking so she could not respond on my striking and definitely I wanted to show them my skills in the ground game.

“It was like no choice for me, they didn’t leave me another one. Just only completely destroy the game plan of Alexa and show that she cannot do anything. Not in the striking, not in the wrestling, not in the grappling.”

Read also: Jon Anik Outlines ‘Silver Lining’ For The UFC After Sean O’Malley’s Title Loss

Continue Reading Valentina Shevchenko Says Judges Influenced Noche UFC 306 Game Plan at MMA News.

John McCarthy: Merab Dvalishvili Could Have Lost Points For ‘Unsportsmanlike Conduct’ At UFC 306

According to former referee John McCarthy, Herb Dean would have been well within his rights to penalize UFC Bantamweight Champion Merab Dvalishvili for his actions against Sean O’Malley. Dvalishvili secured his long-awaited crowning moment on mixed martial arts’ biggest stage at this month’s UFC 306 (Noche UFC) pay-per-view. The Georgian topped the lineup, staged inside […]

Continue Reading John McCarthy: Merab Dvalishvili Could Have Lost Points For ‘Unsportsmanlike Conduct’ At UFC 306 at MMA News.

According to former referee John McCarthy, Herb Dean would have been well within his rights to penalize UFC Bantamweight Champion Merab Dvalishvili for his actions against Sean O’Malley.

Dvalishvili secured his long-awaited crowning moment on mixed martial arts’ biggest stage at this month’s UFC 306 (Noche UFC) pay-per-view. The Georgian topped the lineup, staged inside the unique surroundings of the Sphere, in competition for O’Malley’s title.

While “Suga” was able to find the fight-ending blow against Dvalishvili’s friend and teammate Aljamain Sterling last year to capture the gold, that wasn’t the case on September 14.

Instead, “The Machine” used his renowned gas tank and grappling abilities to earn the nod on all three scorecards. But while there was little debate over the decision, there’s been plenty of discussion surrounding other aspects of the fight.

In addition to a verbal altercation between Dvalishvili and O’Malley’s coach in the opening moments of round one, the second stanza came to a close with controversy after the Georgian used his dominant position to repeatedly kiss the champ’s back.

The moment almost ended in disaster for Dvalishvili, who took the referee’s calls to stop as the end of the round and turned his back on O’Malley with seconds remaining, leading to him eating a strike.

But according to McCarthy, Dvalishvili would have faced further consequences had he been officiating the UFC 306 main event…

McCarthy Recalls Docking Fighter 2 Points For Kissing Opponent In Light Of UFC 306 Moment

During a recent episode of his Weighing In podcast alongside former Strikeforce and UFC fighter Josh Thomson, McCarthy looked back on how Dean officiated the September 14 main event in Las Vegas.

On the topic of Dvalishvili’s back kisses toward the end of round two, McCarthy recalled how he dealt with a similar situation during his days as an active referee.

“I’ve been in this position where I had a fighter kiss another fighter. You look and you go…’What the f*ck did you just do?’ It takes you a second to realize, ‘You just f*cking kissed him!’ Then it’s a matter of how you are going to deal with it,” McCarthy said. “I took two points from him. You want to do something that is absolutely not part of our sport, nobody asked you to do it, nobody wants you to do it, and you want to be cute? Congratulations, you better go finish the fight now. I can disqualify you if I want.

“When that happened, Herb was caught off guard, let’s just be honest,” McCarthy continued. “He should have either made a decisive, ‘Stop! Time, you get over there, you get over there,’ and do something about what just occurred. If he wants to give him a hard warning over it, that’s fine. If he wants to take points, take points for unsportsmanlike conduct, that’s fine. But he got caught in the middle of it.”

O’Malley and his coach, Tim Welch, have since given their own verdict on the moment, suggesting that had the referee kept completely out of the way, “Suga” could have launched a potentially fight-ending head kick from behind.

Alas, that wasn’t to be, and Dvalishvili instead ground out a convincing victory on the scorecards. But with some referees evidently favoring stern punishment for his actions inside the Sphere, perhaps he’ll be a little less keen to place his lips on his next opponent.

Continue Reading John McCarthy: Merab Dvalishvili Could Have Lost Points For ‘Unsportsmanlike Conduct’ At UFC 306 at MMA News.