Sean O’Malley coach responds to criticism from Ben Askren

Tim Welch, one of the coaches behind Sean O’Malley, has responded to some recent comments from former Bellator and ONE Champ Ben Askren.

O’Malley last fought in the co-main event of UFC 252 last weekend, succumbing to a volley of punches from Marlon Vera after seemingly injuring his leg. After the fight was stopped, he was stretchered out of the Octagon.

Askren was not impressed with the performance O’Malley put forth, and also took issue with the formerly unbeaten bantamweight leaving the Octagon on a stretcher.

“If they tried carting me out because of an ankle injury, I would’ve fought someone over that,” Askren said of O’Malley. “You’re not putting my ass on a stretcher because I got an ankle injury. I got one other good leg, and I’m gonna hop all the way to the back. Leave me the F alone. I think he needs to grow up.

“It’s part of growing up. In life, you have failures, you have struggle,” Askren continued, criticizing O’Malley further. “You’re gonna learn from them. Obviously, he hasn’t lost a fight to this point, so he probably hasn’t experienced those really hard things and really, at this point, embarrassment also… He was building himself up and got his ass kicked by ‘Chito’ Vera. He’s probably a little embarrassed by that, as well. Hey, that’s part of it. Get up, rub some dirt on it, hop yourself to the back.”

It did not take long for a member of Team O’Malley to respond from this harsh critique from Askren.

Speaking on Twitter, Coach Welch explained that the medical team on duty for UFC 252 forced O’Malley to leave the Octagon on a stretcher, despite the fighter’s protests to the contrary.

He was trying to say I don’t need a stretcher like three times, they enforced it.

— Tim Welch (@TimwelchMT) August 18, 2020

“He was trying to say ‘I don’t need a stretcher’ like three times, they enforced i,” Welch explained.

What did you think of the performance Sean O’Malley put forth at UFC 252?