While the UFC Noche main event was spectacular with bantamweight champion Sean O’Malley vs Merab Dvalishvili garnering quite attention, the five-round title bout started with a controversy after being halted in the first round by referee Herb Dean.
Just 10 seconds into the opening round, Merab was seen pointing at O’Malley’s corner, yelling at his coach (Tim Welch) while everyone including the commentary crew remained baffled.
Now, as we get past the spectacle of an event, ‘Suga’s’ pal and coach, Welch, revealed what actually went down in the opening fray. During the recent ‘Timbo Suga‘ show, the 34-year-old said,
“That got me off guard… I was really calm and said, ‘You got to be patient Merab (Dvalishvili), you got to be patient Merab’ and he starts bucking around, almost having a seizure.”
While Welch cleared the air around the incident that got him a stiff warning from Herb Dean, warranting the fighter and crew of ‘excessive coaching,’ in Merab’s defense, he never maintained eye contact and was supposedly asking for the cornerman to cut it out.
Apparently distracted by O’Malley‘s corner, Merab decided to returned the favor, yelling at them and that’s when Dean handed a brief time-out, asking both parties to play it fair and square.
However, the notion of “excessive coaching” got Joe Rogan scratching his head, contemplating about it live. Meanwhile, the former bantamweight champion came out to blast O’Malley as he pledged his allegiance to Donald Trump during one of his rallies.
Triple C trolls O’Malley amid Trump speech
For some, the UFC 306 outcome was not so surprising, and former champion and Olympian Henry Cejudo was one of the them. As Nate Diaz said, “Hey, I am not surprised, motherflower“.
Cejudo and O’Malley have been beefing since they were babies, although that should not be taken literally because it cannot be verified despite our best efforts.
Going into UFC Noche, Cejudo predicted the result, foreseeing the Dvalishvili completely out-muscle Sean O’Malley over the course of five rounds and that is exactly what happened.
‘Suga’ simply did not have an answer to Merab’s strength and succumbed to his pressure wrestling style as he failed to execute his game plan of catching ‘The Machine’ with a shot just like he did against Aljamain Sterling.
As a result, Merab toyed him around, imposing his will on the former champion before the judges handed him the unanimous decision win.
Consequently, O’Malley’s bitter rival, Cejudo came out with a post, subtly mocking the American in a Donald Trump campaign rally.
“In better news than Sean getting 50-45. I had the opportunity to open for the President two nights ago. Let’s Make America Great Again and vote for the President Donald J. Trump! Sincerely Henry Menudo .”
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Despite getting all the hate for being a proud Republican and an active Trump supporter, Henry re-posted a clip from September 13 in Las Vegas, all while poking fun at the former President for botching up his name. All fun and games, it seems.
