Video shows Sean O’Malley’s coach talking to Aljamain Sterling during title fight, Sterling responds

There could be more to Sean O’Malley‘s knockout win over Aljamain Sterling than previously thought.

At UFC 292, O’Malley challenged Sterling for the bantamweight title and delivered one of the best performances of his career, stopping Sterling with strikes early in the second round. In the aftermath, Sterling put the loss down to him trying to have an exciting fight instead of focusing on winning, but perhaps it was also due to some gamesmanship by O’Malley’s team.

On Wednesday, new footage from O’Malley’s knockout emerged showing his head coach Tim Welch calling to Sterling during the the fight, telling Sterling, “Aljo, you’ve got to go!” moments before the now-former champ charged in and got caught with the punch that set up the end of the fight.

Speaking to opposing fighters during a bout is not illegal, and if a coach is able to convince an opposing fighter to act foolishly, that would obviously be a great outcome for his fighter.

However, Sterling disputes that anything of the sort happened on this occasion.

“Lol people try to make anything out of nonsense. Short answer. Not at all.”

“Exactly. These posts trying to highlight that are comical. I should probably sell waist-belt trainers and get them to buy into that too”

Of course, when it comes to Sterling and O’Malley, things can never be so simple. Sterling’s teammate, and O’Malley’s next opponent, Merab Dvalishvili jumped in to the conversation to add in his two cents on the champion and his coach, which then kicked off a sprawling exchange between Sterling, Welch, and O’Malley.

“I will smash O’Malley inside the cage and then smash his coach outside of the cage.”

“Are you that mad I said your nose is big brother?”

“Bro dont even fight anymore and be talking shit, clout chasing. That shit might get both ya cheeks clapped Ya Diddy. Let your fighter talk shit, you don’t scrap anymore Jimmy neutron.”

“I never talked shit? Stating facts and talking shit are different.”

“Cap. You talked hella shit during my fight with Sean. The ref had to tell you to stfu multiple times. I wanted to slap you in between rounds and I regret not taking the fine for that. You should know better as a former fighter and a current coach. You constantly talk shit about merab. Let Sean talk shit, you don’t need to be chiming in on the shit talk unless you want the problems as well. It’s that simple bro.”

“I always say good things about merab because I know how dangerous he is , I was asked in a interview what we are gonna target and his nose is one of the things, and I don’t mind a little dust up here and there. All good fun.”

“Dust ups are cool for the FIGHTERS BRO. Not the coach. You crossed the line multiple times which is why Merab said he will fight you too. Same shit when we almost fought Cejudo’s team. They were talking shit as if they were fighting. You making yourself fair game. That’s all I’m saying.”

“Ima smash your best friend after I beat you. Oh wait nvm already did.”

“You held [Henry Cejudo] for 15 min. 0 smashing.”

“You’re a sorry ass champion. Keep bragging about a handicapped fight to give you the best odds to win. You’re not a real man my guy. Don’t try to duck the number 1 contender again to fight number 15 this time or some other pointless lame fight.”

“Congrats to him on that night. If he lost to me after handicapping the fight, I would’ve been pretty sad for him. This is why I was never offered a rematch clause for BEFORE I signed the contract and even after the fight. Facts are facts lil bro. Stay in ya lane.”

And for what it’s worth, Welch himself doesn’t believe the his talking to Sterling played any part on O’Malley winning the bantamweight title.

“Sugar’s Accuracy and ability to punch backwards won him that fight, me blabbing my lips had nothing to do with it.”

There’s still obviously a lot of bad blood between the two camps surrounding a fight that happened almost a year ago, particularly as since then, Sterling moved up to 145 pounds and scored a big win over Calvin Kattar at UFC 300, while O’Malley defended the bantamweight title against rival Marlon Vera at UFC 299. Fortunately, the parties will get a chance to finally settle up later this year when O’Malley and Dvalishvili finally square off.