Sean O’Malley’s coach highlights flaw in Merab Dvalishvili’s game that’s ‘too close to the fight now to fix’

August 29, 2024 3:00 pm ET

Tim Welch has broken down training footage of Merab Dvalishvili.

Welch’s star pupil, Sean O’Malley, defends his bantamweight title against Dvalishvili in the UFC 306 main event Sept. 14 at Sphere in Las Vegas. Welch sees a major hole in Dvalishvili’s striking, which he thinks O’Malley (17-1 MMA, 10-1 UFC) will capitalize on.

“(He) loses balance a little bit on the punches, falls forward, and that’s something that definitely could get him in trouble here, and it’s too close to the fight now to fix,” Welch said of Dvalishvili on his YouTube channel. “Really lunging in here, throwing the overhand right, bringing his back foot with him, which is another thing that could get you in trouble. You saw it with Aljo (Sterling).”

Welch did acknowledge Dvalishvili’s pace and intensity while training.

“Merab doesn’t even control his breath,” Welch said. “He doesn’t even think about controlling his breath. He’ll just breathe in, he’ll be mouth breathing the whole time, and he’ll be able to keep up the pace. That’s one thing that’s scary about him. He’ll be able to just keep up the pace the whole time. Just at that, frantic breathing, frantic pace, that’s one of the things that makes him really dangerous.”

That being said, Welch doesn’t see anyone Dvalishvili (17-4 MMA, 10-2 UFC) could train with that would give him a good gauge of O’Malley’s movement. Dvalishvili’s coach, John Wood, said the same thing about his fighter.

“I’m thankful that I’m not having to be a trainer training someone against ‘Sugar’ because it would just be so hard to find sparring partners that can do anything remotely close to him,” Welch said. “And then you find sparring partners that try to mimic him. They do their best at mimicking him.”

For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 306.

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