Tim Welch Reveals What He Told Merab Dvalishvili at UFC 306

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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September 16, 2024

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.”