After what Sean O’Malley did to Marlon ‘Chito’ Vera at their UFC 299 bout, it is not surprising that the Ecuadorian is finding his loss hard to digest. Having handed ‘Suga’ the only loss in his pro-MMA career at their UFC 252 bout three years ago (which O’Malley maintains happened due to a freak injury that disabled his leg), not many were prepared for the whooping the champion gave the fan-favorite ‘Chito’.

O’Malley thoroughly outclassed Vera over five rounds, even as the perennial contender showed immense durability in eating, among other things, a sickening flying knee flush on his chin. After his loss, ‘Chito’ accused O’Malley of being over-greased and tweeted “Who braid your hair @SugaSeanMMA you were grease to the bone I wonder how much gel they use ?”. Now, MMA journalist Ariel Helwani, who had the bantamweight champion’s coach, Tim Welch on his show, asked him about Vera’s claims.

Sean O’Malley coach addresses ‘Chito’s allegations

After his UFC 299 loss to Sean O’Malley, Marlon ‘Chito’ Vera joined Ariel Helwani on ‘The MMA Hour’ show and claimed that getting a hold of O’Malley was “like grabbing a fish out of the water” and felt that if that wasn’t the case he might have had a better showing.

Helwani asked the champion’s coach, Tim Welch about Vera’s allegations. The coach revealed that ‘Suga’ had chosen to get his signature colorful braids done on fight day and pointed out that the hair stylist who had done O’Malley’s hair had clarified that she had put the ‘normal’ amount of gel on the champ.

“We were gonna get the braid done on the day before on weigh-ins but he’s like ‘Saturday’s gonna be such a long day because we’re fighting so late so might as well get the braid done fight day and then watch some fights. But even the lady commented on one of the posts, the lady who braid his hair, she said she used the normal amount of gel,” he said.

Fans have expressed skepticism on the Ecuadorian’s claims and pointed out that Vera did not actually try to takedown O’Malley during their rematch. And while Welch was remarkably restrained in his response to Vera, O’Malley was not as charitable and went all out on Vera.

Sean O’Malley addressed ‘Chito’s greasing allegations on his YouTube channel and blasted the Ecuadorian for his allegations, saying he didn’t understand why he was so popular among fans. He claimed that he had inside information that would make Vera significantly less popular among fans but did not want to reveal it.

‘Suga’ felt that the allegations did not have any merit since ‘Chito’ was not even close to taking him down at any point in the fight. “He comes out saying I’m greasing my hair. Bro didn’t even get close enough to smell my hair let alone think I — what was greasing my hair gonna do?” O’Malley said. What do you think about ‘Chito’s allegations?

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