Ahead of the rematch between Sean O’Malley and Merab Dvalishvili, the former champion’s coach shared a bizarre excuse about the failure of his fighter to defend the title at UFC 306. Tim Welch claimed that fighting inside the Las Vegas Sphere was kind of distracting. In fact, O’Malley’s coach blamed the loss to ‘The Machine’ on the lighting framework inside the $2.3 billion structure. “There were tons and tons of shots that barely missed by inches that would have completely changed the fight, and I think a lot of it had to do with the Sphere and the lighting,” Sean O’Malley’s coach stated prior to UFC 316. But guess what? The tune has changed after the result of the second fight turned out to be similar to the first one. Let’s take a look at what Tim Welch had to say.

Tim Welch has already claimed, along with Sean O’Malley, that Merab Dvalishvili is the greatest bantamweight ever. This was before we even got to the rematch, and if we think about it, he’s not entirely wrong. Seeing the names of the fighters ‘The Machine’ has defeated in his 13-fight winning streak, Dvalishvili does make a case for it.

However, in Sean O’Malley’s coach’s recent confession, which was no excuse on his fighter’s behalf for losing the rematch, Tim Welch claimed to have seen a “different” version of Merab Dvalishvili. The one in the rematch was vastly different from the one ‘Sugar’ encountered in the Sphere last September, according to the former champion’s coach.

“That Merab, I feel like, was already a different Merab than [the one] we fought at the Sphere,” Tim Welch stated on Sean O’Malley’s YouTube channel. “The guy is a f—— tank. He’s a goddamn machine. He felt stronger.”

Well, Merab Dvalishvili would be happy to receive the praise from Tim Welch. But if Sean O’Malley’s coach believes that he’s in the Georgian star’s good books, he’d be wrong. And it’s not just the coach. Even O’Malley was all praises for Dvalishvili. Speaking about him earlier, O’Malley had said, “It’s so weird. He just felt so f—— compact and strong in there. [He’s the] greatest of all time, greatest bantamweight of all time. I was more nervous this fight than I’ve ever been. You feel vulnerable. You’re in the cage like, ‘This m———– grabs ahold of me, there’s a chance I can’t get away from [him].'”

As for Dvalishvili, he made his thoughts very clear about Welch prior to his successful title defense last weekend.

Dvalishvili has no respect for Tim Welch

As we’ve mentioned already, Merab Dvalishvili is quite happy with the praise he’s received from Sean O’Malley’s coach. However, he believes its natural to praise the fighter who defeated his student and not make any excuses. However, Dvalishvili still doesn’t picture Tim Welch as a person who understands what fair play means. ‘The Machine’ claims that he uses unfair means, referring to the fact that O’Malley’s coach tried to distract him during their UFC 306 matchup.

“To have a student, a champion, who lost against somebody, of course, you must give respect. If you lose, you want to lose to one of the best. It feels good, but he’s still a cheater in my eyes,” Merab Dvalishvili stated last week. “He should try to focus on technique and real things, not distracting me and getting under my skin. This s–t does not affect me. It just shows he’s a cheat.”

Well, no matter what people say about Merab Dvalishvili, he’s up there as arguably the best 135er ever. Moreover, he even made a movement in the pound-for-pound rankings, as he jumped to the second spot, surpassing Jon Jones. Let us know what you think of Dvalishvili after his UFRC 316 performance in the comments section down below.