"Big" John McCarthy recently addressed Sean O'Malley's coach after Tim Welch sought clarification on the controversial excessive coaching incident at UFC 306.
Dvalishvili secured a dominant unanimous decision victory over "Suga" to capture the bantamweight title at UFC 306 earlier this month. While the outcome was unquestionably clear at the end of the day, the fight took an unusual turn just moments after it began.
"The Machine" suddenly paused mid-action, gesturing furiously toward his opponent's corner, prompting referee Herb Dean to step in. Dean reprimanded Dvalishvili for interrupting the match and also gave Welch a warning for overstepping his coaching boundaries, citing the 'excessive coaching' rule.
In the days following the fight, Welch broke his silence on the controversial incident, admitting he did shout at Dvalishvili but claimed he only told him to "be patient." He also acknowledged that some of his instructions for O'Malley included "The Machine's" name, brushing it off as merely a case of normal coaching and insisting it had no impact on the outcome of the bout.
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However, veteran referee McCarthy believes Welch's actions crossed a line and constituted clear misconduct...
McCarthy Cautions Welch On Interference with Opponents During Fights
During a recent appearance on the WEIGHING IN podcast, Welch posed a question to McCarthy, asking how he would have handled the situation if a similar incident to UFC 306’s main event unfolded under his watch.
The renowned MMA referee responded candidly, stating that he would have swiftly issued Welch a stern warning. Furthermore, McCarthy made it clear that if the behavior persisted, he wouldn’t hesitate to eject Welch from the arena in accordance with official refereeing guidelines.
I'm being honest, I would have talked to you in the beginning," McCarthy said. "I would have said, 'Hey, look, I need you to understand I cannot have you talking to the opponent in any fashion. So when you say 'Merab, you've got to look out,' even if it's a call sign for you guys, you're making it sound like you're talking to the opponent. So right away, I would have said, 'Hey, I'm telling you now, stop. We talked about this. If you do it again, I'm going to remove you from this arena,' which I don't want to do.
Obviously, that would affect your fighter and everything, so it's the last thing you want to do. But yeah, it's right in the rules that you can talk to Sean all you want, and we want you to be able to coach and talk to him and give him good, you know, feedback, but we cannot have you in any fashion talking to the opponent or talking to the referee during the round.
Welch also faced significant backlash when footage surfaced from UFC 292 in August 2023, where he allegedly attempted to mislead Aljamain Sterling, trying to lure him into a reckless charge toward O'Malley.