“There were tons and tons of shots that barely missed by inches that would’ve completely changed the fight, and I think a lot of it had to do with The Sphere and the lighting.” Not too long ago, coach Tim Welch put the entire blame on the lighting at UFC 306 for Sean O’Malley’s defeat against Merab Dvalishvili. It was indeed a bizarre reason, but now, after about a week, Welch doubled down on his own words.  

The famed MMA reporter, Ariel Helwani, and Welch sat down together on The Ariel Helwani Show. Therein, Helwani wanted to know a bit more about Welch’s excuse. He pointed out that initially, he assumed that the coach meant that the proverbial bright lights at the Sphere got to ‘Suga’. Later on, he believed that Welch might be talking in specific and literal terms. After all, the lights at the Sphere were pretty bright and interactive. They might have messed up the former bantamweight champion’s vision. But how accurate was this? 

Well, Tim Welch decided to come out clean. He rejected the idea of the lights messing with O’Malley. He said, “No, I mean, it’s just that whole night. You always see Sean when he gets in the Octagon. He’ll get in the guy’s face, he’ll walk up to him with his arms open, and he has that aura about him. And he didn’t do any of that. He didn’t do any of that. We didn’t really get to see the Sphere at all until we walked out of the cage, and it felt quite a bit different. And I don’t know if it was the Sphere that had to do with it.” 

Of course, the coach seemed to have known that for some time now. In the end, the blame came down to the entire night. And instead of getting demoralized, O’Malley’s teammate showed commendable motivation. He said, “But just that night, I don’t know, it’s just something about it. We were meant to lose that fight, and now it’s just gonna make this one that much sweeter.”

Needless to say, losing the belt to ‘The Machine’ at UFC 306 took a heavy toll on O’Malley. He zoomed out of social media and went radio silent for a while. But unlike many others, ‘Suga’ was actually preparing for his comeback. Let’s see what Welch had to say about this. 

Sean O’Malley’s coach weighs in on the aftermath of UFC 306

As the conversation with Helwani continued, Welch revealed how losing the bout to Dvalishvili changed O’Malley. He said, “I’ve seen it a lot after a fighter loses — it literally just demoralizes them. You see their confidence go away. But with Sean, he’s not like that. He’s a mentally very strong kid, and I knew for a fact that he was going to figure out, ‘what’s going to be the best mentality I can have after this,’ and he’s going to do that.”

He continued, “It forced him to change a lot of things in his life, and it forced him to just kind of level up. It did kind of humble both of us, and it forced us to level up. So his mindset has been so good.” The coach claimed that ‘Suga’s happiness actually came from his relationships with his family and friends. This was the reason why a win or loss didn’t matter to his energy levels to that extent. On top of that, Welch was always around O’Malley, keeping an eye on him. In the end, Welch said, “He was more healthy after that fight, I think, than any of our other fights.” 

Now, all eyes are focused on the rematch between the two. While ‘Suga’ was out of action and preparing for the rematch, Dvalishvili defended his belt against Umar Nurmagomedov at UFC 311. This proved that the Georgian champion was pretty well-versed in wrestling to have neutralized a Dagestani. But O’Malley isn’t someone to go down that easily. He’s a marksman striker, and who knows, we might get to see him win via a KO. But we still have to wait for UFC 316 to watch the fight. 

What are your thoughts on the bout between O’Malley and Dvalishvili at UFC 306? Do you think the bright lights could have affected the former champion in any way? Let us know what you think in the comments down below.