Tim Welch believes Sean O’Malley’s TKO of Aljamain Sterling “put a little fear” into Merab Dvalishvili

By Cole Shelton - August 24, 2023

Tim Welch, the head coach of Sean O’Malley, believes UFC 292 put some fear into Merab Dvalishvili.

Sean O'Malley, Merab Dvalishvili

In the main event of UFC 292, Sean O’Malley became the UFC’s new bantamweight champion with a second-round TKO over Aljamain Sterling. In the corner of Sterling was Dvalishvili who is a top contender at bantamweight, who could be next in line to face O’Malley.

However, Tim Welch believes Merab Dvalishvili seeing Sean O’Malley TKO Aljamain Sterling like that will put fear into him over a potential fight with ‘Suga.’

“I think if you’ve got a real special striker, like someone like Izzy or Volk like these guys, they see Sean and they’re like, wow, he is a problem,” Welch said to Submission Radio about Merb Dvalishvili and Sean O’Malley. “But then you have stupid people like Henry Cejudo and stuff that think they’re just going to go in there and kick his legs and they’re going to take him down easy, and that’s all you’ve got to do is just kick his legs and pressure him. And then, I think Merab, too, I think that might have put a little fear in Merab because Merab makes a lot of those mistakes, too.

RELATED: Petr Yan calls for trilogy match against Aljamain Sterling.

“Yes, he’s got a scary, scary gas tank. He’s going to come forward the whole time. But he reaches and he does a lot of bad stuff fundamentally, too. So, if that fight happens eventually, he’ll probably knock Merab out, too. But I think to actually skilled fighters that can see it, they see how dangerous he is,” Welch continued about Sean O’Malley.

Although Tim Welch thinks Sean O’Malley’s TKO win put fear into Merab Dvalishvili, the Georgian did say it was an early stoppage and was mad at Marc Goddard.

As well, it’s uncertain when a potential Sean O’Malley vs. Dvalishvili fight would happen. O’Malley was vocal in wanting Marlon Vera next, so Dvalishvili may need to win another fight to earn a title shot.


Topics:

Merab Dvalishvili Sean O'Malley UFC