Merab Dvalishvili Warns Sean O’Malley of Consequences for UFC 306 Withdrawal

Title challenger Merab Dvalishvili still has his sights on Sean O'Malley's head coach Tim Welch.

Gary A. Vasquez-Imagn Images

Merab Dvalishvili really wants to get his hands on Sean O'Malley, but there is another fight out there he'd settle for.

Entering title contention for the first time in his UFC career, Dvalishvili takes on bantamweight champ O'Malley in the main event of Noche UFC this weekend from the Sphere in Las Vegas, Nevada. There's more than a title on the line in this fight, with a bit of bad blood between both teams stemming from O'Malley's TKO win over Dvalishvili's teammate and then-champ Aljamain Sterling.

🤯 Footage appears showing O'Malley's coach Tim Welch pretending to be Aljo's coach:

"Aljo, you gotta go!" pic.twitter.com/tzRrD23YgN

— Home of Fight (@Home_of_Fight) May 8, 2024

Dvalishvili Planning 'Bully' Beatdown On Team O'Malley

Across from Dvalishvili in the opposing corner that fateful night at UFC 292 was O'Malley's longtime coach, Tim Welch. Welch is a former MMA fighter who has poked team Dvalishvili a few times on social media alongside O'Malley.

"O'Malley, he tried to be bully," Dvalishvili said on UFC Embedded. "He tried to talk s*** but he don't know that - that doesn't work [on] me. I'm gonna beat him more because of that. He's been bullying, disrespectful to me. I won't be sad when I will beat him.

"He's good, but he's lucky... I wish fight was tomorrow."

Gary A. Vasquez-Imagn Images

Scheduled to finally face O'Malley this Saturday after years of calling his name, a lot has been made of Dvalishvili's recent cut over his eye and whether or not he'll be fighting in the biggest fight of his life. However, Dvalishvili has confirmed he's fit to fight "Suga" or even Welch if O'Malley's the one to withdraw from their title bout at the Sphere.

"O'Malley, you better show up. If you don't show up, I'm gonna fight your coach Tim," Dvalishvili warned team O'Malley.

Craig Kidwell-Imagn Images

Welch's Thoughts On Upcoming Fight

After coming up short of a spot on "The Ultimate Fighter 22", Welch fought three more times before stepping away from the cage in 2017 and into the corner of a young O'Malley, whom he helped coach to a world championship this past year. While he never made it to the UFC, Welch boasts a size advantage over Dvalishvili at a walk-around weight of 195 lbs, he told Submission Radio on the topic of Dvalishvili wanting to "punk" him.

Slated to coach this week, not fight, Welch believes in O'Malley's abilities to take out the cardio and wrestling machine they have in front of them in Dvalishvili.

"Merab's a big problem," Welch said of O'Malley's upcoming test at Noche UFC. "So, we trained really, really hard, and he was very disciplined for this fight because it's a huge challenge. Merab's gonna have to come forward, and he's gonna have to eat some shots to even get close to Sean. Is he gonna be able to eat those shots? I don't think so."

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