Dvalishvili: O'Malley's coach tried to 'provoke' me during fight

Newly crowned UFC bantamweight champion Merab Dvalishvili addressed Monday the bizarre incident that occurred at the beginning of his fight against Sean O'Malley.

Just seconds into his unanimous decision win over O'Malley at UFC 306 this past weekend, Dvalishvili turned away from his opponent, pointing at and talking to someone cageside. Referee Herb Dean halted the action momentarily and warned Dvalishvili not to engage with the person again, whom the broadcast team guessed was O'Malley's head coach and cornerman, Tim Welch.

In a post on X, Dvalishvili said O'Malley's coach did say something to him and was trying to distract him.

"Everyone is asking what happened at start of fight," Dvalishvili wrote. "I was trying to stay professional and focus on the fight only, not wanting to change the energy of the fight. I made no eye contact with O'Malley's team. But when the fight started, I heard his team calling out to me. 'Merab.' Trying to coach, provoke, and distract me.

"I yelled back at them, 'Cut it out and coach your own guy.'"

Dvalishvili said O'Malley's coach's actions were "not professional."

"This is the way they want their fighter to win," Dvalishvili wrote. "It's a shame how disrespectful they are and that they have zero sportsmanship."

Welch addressed the situation in a video on his YouTube channel and confirmed that he talked to Dvalishvili during the fight.

"First round comes out, and what I said to Merab was, 'Merab, you need to be patient.' And that's when he freaked out," Welch said. "He started bucking himself around, and I was like, 'Holy cow. I just said, Merab, be patient.' He must've been anticipating that a little bit. But I really wasn't going out of my way to yell, but I did say that."

Welch added that the referee then told him not to say anything to Dvalishvili.

"I was surprised how much (Dvalishvili) freaked out," Welch said. "He let his emotions get to him in there. But (it) didn't do anything. Didn't matter."